Milon urges stronger basic skills before wider AI use in education
Education and Primary and Mass Education Minister Dr ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon said Bangladesh must first strengthen children’s foundational skills, especially reading, reasoning and verification of information, so they can use AI safely and effectively.
In a Nutshell
- Education Minister Ehsanul Hoque Milon said Bangladesh must first strengthen children’s foundational skills, especially reading, reasoning and verification of information, so they can use AI safely and effectively.
- Speaking at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on 8 September, he said teachers should be involved from the outset in AI pilots, procurement, evaluation and correction processes in educational institutions.
- Milon argued that AI can save time but should not be applied indiscriminately, particularly not as the sole basis for teacher recruitment, promotion, performance assessment, discipline, or decisions about a child’s ability and learning pathway.
- He said Bangladesh should measure AI initiatives by learning outcomes, reduced teacher workload, equity, safety/data protection and cost-effectiveness—not simply by user numbers or the volume of pilot projects.
Context
The minister’s intervention places Bangladesh within a rapidly intensifying global debate: whether AI will improve education or deepen pre-existing inequalities. UNESCO frames the 2026 forum around the consequences of synthetic knowledge, the institutional frictions created by AI, and emerging questions of public-interest AI and digital sovereignty. Its accompanying policy work warns that ungoverned AI can undermine education as a public good, strengthening the case for deliberative governance rather than technology-led adoption. For Bangladesh, the core issue is sequencing. AI tools may assist with lesson planning, feedback, translation, accessible learning materials and administrative tasks; however, their educational usefulness depends on learners’ ability to read critically, reason through claims and identify unreliable outputs.
Why It Matters
AI is becoming part of the global competition over educational quality, workforce readiness and technological capability, yet it can also reproduce inequality at scale. Bangladesh has a strong incentive to adopt tools that reduce routine workload, expand access to learning resources and support teaching in large or under-resourced classrooms. But rapid, poorly governed deployment could widen the gap between well-connected urban learners and other students.
The strategic challenge is not whether Bangladesh uses AI, but whether it builds the institutional capacity to decide where AI is appropriate, where it is unsafe, and who remains accountable when the technology makes an error.
What We Think
Minister Milon’s emphasis on foundational learning, teacher involvement and limits on automated decisions identifies the central question for Bangladesh: how can AI support education without deepening existing inequalities or weakening human accountability?
The answer lies in targeted, independently assessed pilots linked to clear problems, such as reading support, feedback, or reducing teachers’ routine paperwork, rather than technology-led expansion. Their success can be measured by learning outcomes, teacher workload, equity across regions and social groups, data security, and long-term costs. Automated AI should not determine admissions, assessment, welfare, recruitment, promotion or discipline. Strong safeguards for children’s data and transparent vendor obligations are equally important.