Korea’s education model is helping the region to scale innovation with teachers, data, and AI at the center.
- Over the past two decades, the IDB–Korea partnership has invested more than $15.4 million across 30+ education projects, bringing digital innovation to LAC classrooms.
- A recent learning mission connected policymakers from the region with Korea’s AI-enabled education ecosystem through school visits, EdTech exchange, and high-level policy dialogues.
When one country transforms its classrooms, others can learn from that journey. That’s exactly what happened when a delegation from the region and specialists from the Inter-American Development Bank visited Korea to deepen collaboration and explore how the region can adapt Korea’s bold approach to digital transformation in education—with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI).
In recent years, the Republic of Korea has emerged at the forefront of a global movement to integrate artificial intelligence and digital learning into national education systems. Korean schools are experimenting with AI-enabled tool and adaptive learning platforms, and classroom environments where teachers and machines collaborate with machines to elevate learning outcomes.
This evolution isn’t just about innovation for its own sake. It responds to real systemic challenges: a shrinking student population, hyper-competition in education, and rapidly changing demands on the teaching profession.
How did Korea become a global education leader?
With a 98% upper-secondary completion rate and 70% tertiary education attainment among young adults, the Republic of Korea has one of the most educated populations in the world. Internet penetration exceeds 90% of the population, and among youth it approaches near-universal access. This is not by chance but rather the result of strategy: sustained public investment, coherent policy, and a shared national belief that education is the country’s greatest asset.
Korea’s edge comes from three interlocking foundations. Through its national agency Korea Education & Research Information Service (KERIS), Korea routinely provides large-scale training in digital and AI skills for educators. Also, robust connectivity and tech platforms allow schools to move faster from pilot to scale, schools are ready to adopt and scale edtech. Korea has also implement data-driven policies to ensure school systems feed into national data platforms that inform decisions. Korea is not just experimenting with technology; it is using it to redesign what learning can be.
Four lessons LAC can take from Korea
Now, as countries across the region look to accelerate their own digital transformation in education, Korea’s journey offers a roadmap for how to turn innovation into opportunity.
- Policy alignment: Korea aligns curricula, teacher development, infrastructure, and data, which means fewer isolated pilots and more system-wide impact.
- Teachers: Korea made teacher training a cornerstone of its digital strategy, ensuring educators could confidently and effectively use new technologies.
- Data: Korean schools feed into national data systems; monitoring and evaluation inform when and how to expand innovations.
- Public–private ecosystems: Korea plans for access, connectivity, and teacher support across the system.
Learning at scale, in context
Korea–LAC collaboration has also supported hands-on learning through initiatives like robotics programs in Paraguay, which improved computational thinking and boosted girls’ participation in STEM. These experiences show how innovation can be inclusive, scalable, and context-adapted. They also illustrate how technology, when combined with teacher training and smart policy, creates real opportunities for students.
Building on the earlier lessons with policymakers from Honduras, the Korea–LAC collaboration now focuses specifically on the AI dimension of digital transformation—and includes a deeper country-focus on LAC countries. The mission created spaces for regional education specialists and policymakers to experience first-hand how Korea connects policy, infrastructure, teacher capacity, and technology to drive systemic change. Key highlights included:
1. Showcase of K-EdTech innovation
The delegation engaged with 300+ private and public innovators at the Korea EdTech Fair 2025, Asia’s largest EdTech exhibition, to explore cutting-edge AI-powered education solutions that enhance teaching and learning at scale.
2. Strengthened strategic partnerships
Through bilateral meetings with the Ministry of Education, Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, and KERIS, the delegation confirmed the shared commitment to develop new collaborations and gain insights into the new administration’s AI/Digital education policy direction.
3. Experienced AI integration in classrooms
Delegates visited an AI-leading middle school to observe real-world applications of digital and AI tools in teaching and learning, as well as digital device management practices.
4. Matchmaking with K-EdTech companies
The group connected with top EdTech companies to explore partnership opportunities in AI learning platforms and AI-powered social-emotional learning (SEL) tools.
5. Elevated dialogue between Korea-LAC
The delegation held a fireside to discuss the Korea-LAC collaboration in AI and digital education, empowering teachers as drivers of digital transformation.
A Partnership Built on Experience
For more than two decades, the IDB and Korea have been working together to connect classrooms, build capacity, and bring digital innovation to students across the region. Through the Korea Trust Fund, more than 30 joint projects have helped introduce cutting-edge technology and pedagogical models to public education systems in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Korea’s story is a powerful example of how strategic investment in education — particularly digital education — can transform a nation. Its classrooms are teacher-led, data-driven, and digitally empowered. This mission is a practical step toward turning global innovation into local impact. Because when education and innovation move together, opportunity scales. And that’s exactly the kind of inspiration that is fueling this partnership.