Category: AI in Education

Nobody Asked Her What She Thought of the Answer

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

What a youth camp in Garam Chashma revealed about the real AI divide, and it isn’t the one we keep talking about.

I spent twenty days this summer running youth camps in Garam Chashma, Chitral, with students aged fourteen to twenty. I went in expecting to talk a lot about access bandwidth, devices, career goals, challenges and the usual checklist for a remote valley like this one.

A girl finished a camp assignment task on her phone in about 2 minutes. She had asked an AI tool for the answer, copied it, and was ready to move on. I asked her a simple question: what did she think of the answer it gave her?

She looked at me, genuinely puzzled. “Sir, theek tha” (Sir, it was fine), she said, and waited for the next question, not because she couldn’t think harder about it, but because no one had ever asked her to.

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The Mirror in the Palm of Their Hand

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

What happens to a teenager’s identity when no one, not even their technology, ever disagrees with them?

I was running a session with a group of sixteen and seventeen-year-olds at a Karachi school last term. We were talking about AI, how it works, how they use it, and what they tell it. At some point, almost without thinking, I asked a question I hadn’t planned.

“How many of you have ever disagreed with your AI? Like, actually pushed back on something it said?”

Silence. A few uncertain looks around the room. Then, slowly, one hand.

“Sir, maine ek baar try kiya tha, but it just agreed with me anyway.” (Sir, I tried it once, but it just agreed with me anyway.)

The room laughed. I laughed too. But on the drive home, the less funny it seemed.

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Homework in the Age of AI: Does It Still Make Sense?

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

Reflective classroom perspective + practical ways forward

In recent classroom visits and conversations with teachers I mentor, a pattern keeps emerging. Students in secondary classes are handing in homework that looks complete and correct. Yet when teachers try to discuss that homework in class the next day, many students struggle to explain what they actually understand.

At first glance, it seems like homework is working; notebooks look good, and assignments are done on time. But the deeper question is: Are students really learning?

Many students now admit that homework, which once took an hour, can be finished in minutes using AI tools on their phones. This pressure to “get work done fast” is creating a new classroom reality. Teachers are unsure how to respond. Parents are relieved homework is done, but can’t tell whether real learning is happening.

This situation has made me reflect deeply:
➡ If homework is getting completed but understanding is not growing, does traditional homework still serve its purpose in today’s secondary classrooms?

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

Posted on by Ahmad Amirali

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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