Beyond Digital as Usual: Inclusive EdTech and AI for Marginalized Learners

• In Event: AI, Learning and Equity

Proposal

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the landscape of education, but ensuring its benefits extend to the most marginalized learners calls for a fundamentally different approach. To address this, UNICEF is advancing two complementary initiatives that together connect the evaluation and implementation dimensions of AI, with the aim of accelerating inclusion in education.

Unicef’s EdTech for Good Framework provides a global “north star” for countries, investors, and developers seeking to ensure that AI-powered education technologies are safe, effective, and equitable. Developed by UNICEF, ARM, the Asian Development Bank, the Government of Finland, and partners across the EdTech industry, this Framework synthesizes evaluation approaches into a comprehensive structure for assessing EdTech tools. By emphasizing evidence, data security, online safety, and adaptability, the Framework helps education systems and industry actors scrutinize AI use in EdTech and make informed choices on how to procure, scale, and sustain tools that genuinely improve learning.

Complementing this evaluative lens, UNICEF’s Accessible Digital Textbooks initiative demonstrates how inclusive design and AI-enabled functionality can be embedded into real-world solutions. By ensuring that core learning materials are available in national languages and accessible formats—including text-to-speech, dyslexia-friendly features, and offline functionality—the initiative shows how AI can dismantle barriers for children with disabilities and those in low-connectivity environments.

Taken together, these efforts underscore a holistic approach: building trust in AI-powered EdTech through robust global principles and evaluation, while ensuring that accessible tools reach the learners who need them most. This dual focus illustrates a pathway where AI strengthens equity rather than widening divides.

Author

• Frank van Cappelle, UNICEF