Global Best Practice
AI in Education Around the World: What Singapore, Estonia and the UAE Are Doing
Beyond China’s decade-long head start — three more national approaches worth knowing about.
TL;DR
- 1.Singapore has built AI literacy into its national “Smart Nation” strategy, treating it as core infrastructure rather than an elective subject.
- 2.Estonia, already known for its digital-first education system, has extended that same infrastructure-first approach to AI literacy.
- 3.The UAE created a dedicated federal role for AI and has pushed AI curriculum integration from a national policy level, not just at the school level.
Singapore: AI as national infrastructure
Singapore’s approach treats AI literacy as part of the same national “Smart Nation” push that built its digital-government infrastructure — AI education isn’t a standalone school initiative, it’s one layer of a much broader, coordinated national digital strategy.
Estonia: extending an existing digital-first system
Estonia was already known internationally for near-universal digital access and coding education starting young. Its AI literacy push builds directly on that existing digital infrastructure and teacher-training pipeline, rather than starting from zero.
UAE: a dedicated federal AI role
The UAE created a Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence — a signal that AI strategy, including in education, is treated as a top-level national priority with direct government ownership, not delegated entirely to individual schools or the education ministry alone.
What’s actually transferable to India
None of these countries’ exact playbook fits India’s scale or diversity directly. But the shared thread across all of them — treating AI literacy as infrastructure with real government ownership, not an optional add-on left entirely to individual schools — is exactly the direction India’s own CBSE mandate and NEP 2020 are heading.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is India behind these countries on AI in education?
India’s approach started more recently at a national-mandate level, but its 2025–26 CBSE curriculum mandate moves in the same direction these countries have already taken — treating AI literacy as core infrastructure, not an elective.
Which country’s model is closest to India’s?
None directly — India’s scale and linguistic diversity are unlike any of these three, which is why India’s own approach needs to be its own design, not a copy of any single country’s playbook.
Do these countries mandate AI the same way CBSE does?
The specifics differ by country, but the shared pattern is national-level policy ownership of AI-in-education strategy, similar in spirit to how CBSE’s mandate operates at the national level in India.
Sources & Further Reading
- National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 — Government of India
- CBSE Circular on AI in Schools (2026)
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