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Ministry of Education / Reporter Park Sung-il

A project in which schoolteachers directly author textbooks for artificial intelligence (AI) subjects is getting into full swing.

The Ministry of Education announced on the 27th that it will hold a workshop to enhance textbook development capabilities for AI subject textbook writing committee members at Hotel Inter-Burgo Exco in Daegu from the 28th to the 29th.

Previously, due to a lack of diverse AI-related subjects in schools, school principals frequently opened new subjects while teachers conducted classes using materials they created themselves. This placed a heavy burden on teachers and led to continuous calls for formal textbook development.

This year, the Ministry of Education is supporting the development of textbooks and educational materials for AI-related subjects for the first time. Through a public contest, a total of 16 subjects were selected, including six for elementary schools, two for middle schools, and eight for high schools. The developed textbooks will be introduced to school classrooms starting in March 2028.

The textbooks will be developed through a teacher-led approach, where frontline teachers directly participate as authors to reflect real classroom experience and on-site demands. The plan is to create highly practical textbooks by having teachers lead the entire process, from curriculum analysis and unit organization to manuscript writing. Around 100 participants, including officials from the Ministry of Education and provincial education offices, representatives from selected schools and institutions, compilation agency officials, and writing committee members, are attending the workshop.

Textbook development is being pursued as a collaborative project involving the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and 10 provincial offices of education. The Ministry of Science and ICT will provide technical experts to reflect the latest technological trends, while provincial education offices will discover authoring talent and handle on-site school coordination. Chungnam National University, the commissioned agency, will serve as the compilation body supporting everything from forming writing teams to drafting manuscripts and navigating screening reviews.

Core concepts and principles based on the curriculum will be included in the main textbooks, while rapidly evolving technological trends and hands-on practice cases will be developed into supplementary educational materials for continuous updates. These textbooks will be certified textbooks and will be implemented in classrooms after a pilot application in the first semester of 2027 and subsequent certification reviews by provincial education offices in the second half of that year.

"Frontline teachers who understand classrooms best will take the lead in developing textbooks and educational materials so that students in any school can solidly cultivate AI literacy and capabilities," said Jang Hong-jae, head of the School Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Education.

                                                                                                             Park Ji-sook