Category: Education Reform in Pakistan

AI Is Already in Our Classrooms. Are Our Learning Practices Ready?

Reflections on Generative AI, Learning, and What the Pakistan Education System Must Rethink

Artificial intelligence did not wait for policy approvals, curriculum updates, or teacher training workshops. It entered classrooms quietly through homework help, essay drafts, exam preparation, and late-night study sessions. Long before schools decided what to do about it, students had already figured out how to use it.

In Pakistan, this reality feels especially sharp. Our education system has always rewarded correct answers more than deep understanding. In such a context, generative AI can easily become a powerful shortcut, producing fluent responses without necessarily strengthening learning. The risk is not that students are using AI. The risk lies in how they use it and in what our systems encourage them to value.

This is why the OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026: Exploring Effective Uses of Generative AI in Education deserves careful attention. Rather than celebrating AI as a solution or warning against it as a threat, the report offers a more uncomfortable insight: improved performance does not automatically mean improved learning. In some cases, it may even hide learning loss.

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Beyond Rote: Teaching Skills that Matter in a Test-Driven World

I’ve spent years moving between classrooms, teacher-training sessions, and mentoring conversations with school leaders. No matter where I go, a private school in Karachi, a public school workshop in South Punjab, or an online teacher circle, the same concern keeps surfacing: our children can memorise, but can they think critically?

This reflection grows out of that discomfort. It is not an attack on exam marks that matter in Pakistan, and families are right to care about them. But it is a question about balance. How do we keep exam success while also preparing students for a world that demands critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and adaptability?

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