The 2026 Global Smart Education Conference (GSE2026) kicked off in Beijing on August 18^th, bringing together education leaders, researchers, practitioners and technology experts from around the world. Co-hosted by Beijing Normal University (BNU) and the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE), this year’s conference is held with the theme “Reimagining Education in the Age of AI: Equity, Quality and Sustainability.” Participants explored how AI can be meaningfully integrated into education, shared emerging theories, technologies and practices in smart education, and explored pathways towards more equitable, inclusive and high-quality education in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4).

The conference has established a high-level platform for international dialogue, bringing together institutions and practitioners involved in shaping the future of education, including representatives from UNESCO, the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) and the International Association of Universities (IAU). They are joined together with ministerial-level education officials from more than ten countries, including Mauritius, Malawi, Senegal, Tonga, Indonesia, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Cameroon, as well as international guests from over 60 countries and policymakers, researchers, educators and technology specialists from China.

Group Photo of Guests at the Opening Ceremony of the GSE2026

 

People-Centred Sustainable Educational Transformation

 

Sustainable development in education lies at the heart of the UN 2030 Agenda and provides a critical reference point for educational transformation in the age of AI. As artificial intelligence reshapes economies and societies at unprecedented speed, education systems face a fundamental challenge: how can AI be harnessed not simply to drive technological change, but to advance human development, educational equity and quality?

H.E. Mr. REN Youqun, Vice Minister of Education of China and Chairperson of the National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO, said that China has made the integration of AI and education a national priority. Through its national strategy for education digitalisation and the launch of an “AI + Education” action plan, China is working to integrate AI across educational processes, settings and practices. Addressing the wider question of education’s role in the intelligent era, he called for stronger international coordination, greater consensus on development strategies, expanded platforms for sharing digital education resources, and joint efforts to strengthen teachers’ digital competencies and teaching capacity worldwide.

Prof. YU Jihong, President of Beijing Normal University (BNU), highlighted the growing potential of intelligent technologies to advance sustainable development in education. She outlined BNU’s efforts to promote AI-enabled educational transformation, including initiatives in higher education reform, innovative teacher education and the development of large language models (LLMs) for classical Chinese and basic education. She stressed that while technologies continue to evolve, education must remain fundamentally human-centred. AI should be developed and used for social good, she said, while innovation in curricula, disciplines and teacher development should advance together with greater international openness and collaboration.

Mr. TANG Qian, Co-Chair of the Conference and former UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, called for the vision of smart education to be translated into shared, sustainable and equitable action. He highlighted three priorities: advancing a humanistic approach to education that enables everyone to fulfil their potential; responding to an increasingly complex global environment through more open and flexible lifelong learning systems; and recognising education and knowledge as global common goods essential to sustainable development in an interdependent world.

Throughout the opening speeches, a broad consensus emerged: technological progress must not displace the fundamental purpose of education. Realising AI’s potential will require a sustained focus on holistic human development, a careful balance between innovation and ethical responsibility, and stronger cooperation across countries and education systems.

 

Advancing Equity and Inclusion through a Global Community for Smart Education

 

Guided by the goal of leaving no learner behind, UNESCO has consistently placed inclusion and equity at the heart of global education governance. As digital transformation accelerates worldwide, widening gaps in digital access and the use of AI still risks creating new forms of educational inequality. Addressing these divides requires harnessing technology to narrow development gaps, safeguarding education as a public good, and strengthening an open and inclusive global community for smart education.

In a video address, H.E. Ms. Rabab Fatima, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, described inclusive, equitable and sustainable education enabled by AI and digital technologies as an urgent global priority. She called for greater investment in digital infrastructure and sustainable connectivity, stronger institutional digital capacity and digital skills, and a continued commitment to human-centred, quality-focused and inclusive development. She stressed that international cooperation will be essential to ensuring that the benefits of technology reach all learners.

H.E. Mr. CHEN Qun, the UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, said in a video address that education systems worldwide are facing a range of pressures, including demographic change, geopolitical tensions, insufficient investment, and a growing mismatch between skills development and societal needs. He noted that UNESCO is working with partners worldwide to address three critical questions: how to ensure the safe and effective use of AI in education; how to prevent digital and AI divides from widening; and how intelligent technologies can be used to improve learning outcomes.

Additionally, education ministers from different countries shared their national perspectives on governing AI-enabled transformation. H.E. Mr. Kaviraj Sukon, Minister of Tertiary Education, Science and Research of Mauritius, argued that schools and universities need to reconsider what education should teach in the age of AI. He called for AI to become part of university curricula, alongside stronger teacher training and curriculum reform, so that the technology contributes directly to better learning.

H.E. Mr. Bright Msaka, Minister of Education, Science and Technology of Malawi, emphasised the importance of equipping teachers to use intelligent teaching tools effectively. He said that future education should combine AI with distinctly human capabilities—including judgement, empathy, critical thinking, communication and collaboration—enabling teachers and learners to become informed, active and responsible users of AI.

H.E. Mr. Idrissa Samb, Minister of Employment, Vocational and Technical Training of Senegal, said the sustainable use of AI in education needs to address social, institutional and environmental dimensions together. He argued that digital transformation can only be truly sustainable when it serves human-centred and inclusive development. AI should ultimately function as a public good—supporting teachers, expanding access to quality education, strengthening young people’s employability and reducing inequalities. 

H.E. Mr. Mo’ale Otunuke, Minister for Education and Training of Tonga, stressed that AI should not become a resource available only to a privileged few. He emphasized that equal access must go hand in hand with cultural inclusion and preservation. Countries should be able to participate in developing locally relevant AI systems that respect their languages, cultures and Indigenous knowledge, rather than allowing technology to drive cultural homogenisation.

H.E. Ms. Stella Christie, Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology of Indonesia, invited universities to reconsider the meaning of knowledge itself. She argued that knowledge is more than an accumulation of facts; it acquires value through selection, organisation and interpretation. As AI becomes increasingly capable of generating content and processing vast amounts of information, universities need to revisit their core roles in creating, transmitting and curating knowledge, as well as the distinctive contribution of human beings to those processes.

Building a truly global community for smart education will therefore depend on recognising different national contexts while maintaining a shared commitment to equity and inclusion. Lester G. Huang, who is the Deputy Chairman of The Hong Kong Jockey Club and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, highlighted the value of connecting educational practices across regions, sharing experience, co-creating solutions and jointly exploring the future of schooling so that all students can benefit from equitable learning opportunities.

 

Turning Smart Education into Action through Shared Knowledge and Practice

 

GSE2026 is also serving as a platform for translating ideas into action. Experts, governments, international organisations and industry partners presented initiatives, standards, research reports and practical solutions spanning special education, rural education, student development and teacher professional development. Together, these outputs are intended to strengthen the global evidence base for smart education and encourage sustained exchange and mutual experience-sharing across countries and contexts.

Among the major outcomes announced at the conference was the Global Smart School Initiative, jointly launched by Prof. HUANG Ronghuai, Co-Dean of the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University and UNESCO Chair on AI in Education, and Dr. Shafika Isaacs, Chief of Section for Technology and Artificial Intelligence in Education at UNESCO and Director a.i. of UNESCO IITE. Initiated by the Global Smart Education Network (GSENet), the Initiative seeks to build an open, inclusive and evidence-informed global platform through which schools can exchange practices, undertake professional evaluation, receive transformation consultancy support and participate in school certification.

The Initiative responds to two fundamental questions in the age of AI: What is changing and what should remain constant in schools? What should schools change, and how can that change be achieved and sustained? While innovative models of future schooling are emerging around the world, there remains a need for shared frameworks that can help schools understand, evaluate and advance their transformation.

At the core of the initiative are the Five Pillars of Smart School: Smart Learning Experiences Conducive to Student Development, centered on personalised growth, learner communities and digital literacy; Teaching Innovation Empowered by Digital and Intelligent Technologies, including human–AI collaboration, growth-oriented assessment and evidence-based teaching practices; Teacher Professional Development Focused on Enhancing Digital Competence, supported through experiential learning, interdisciplinary collaboration and student behaviour analysis; Forward-Looking School Planning Geared towards Sustainable Development, bringing together transformation readiness, multi-stakeholder decision-making, data-informed governance and continuous improvement; and Home–School–Community Collaboration Anchored in Students’ Holistic Development, using digital and intelligent technologies to build inclusive, equitable and high-quality partnerships while supporting intelligent social experiments. The Initiative also brings together practices from more than ten schools across China, the Netherlands, Serbia, Singapore, Canada, Kenya and several other contexts, providing a growing evidence base for schools exploring their own pathways towards smart transformation.

Prof. HU Xiangen, the Director of the Educational Research & Technology Center at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, presented the Pacesetting Global Educational Transformation Report: AI-Driven Innovations from 100 Selected Top Universities on behalf of the research team. Available in the six official languages of the United Nations—Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish—the report presents AI practices adopted between 2020 and 2026 by 100 leading universities across six continents. It identifies distinct regional pathways of transformation and provides evidence to inform more compliant, inclusive and sustainable approaches to AI-enabled higher education.

Other major research and action-oriented outcomes and calles were announced during the conference, including Smart Education Around the World (Perspectives from Seven Regional Reports); an Observatory to Track the Impact of Digital Learning on Adolescent Health and Well-being; an Initiative and Global Call for Cases on “Learning Villages in the Digital Age”; a report release on How Can Teachers “Upgrade” in the Age of Intelligence?; a launch and thematic discussion of On-Demand Learning for Lifelong and Responsive Education; a Technical Guideline Framework and Solutions for the Three-Dimensional Integrated Teaching Field; and the “AI Employee” Platform.

Taken together, these initiatives, reports and solutions connect global frameworks with practical implementation. By combining locally grounded experience with adaptable tools and approaches, they aim to provide evidence for smart education reform across diverse contexts and strengthen the bridge between research, policy and practice.

 

Strengthening Cross-Sector Collaboration for a High-Quality Smart Education Ecosystem

 

Cross-sector partnerships and international collaboration are playing an increasingly important role in accelerating the digital transformation of education worldwide. Through platforms such as UNESCO, the Global Smart Education Network (GSENet) and the World Digital Education Alliance, universities, governments and educational technology companies are working together to explore innovative applications of AI in education, share expertise and resources, and foster an open and high-quality smart education ecosystem.

Ms. AI Yuxin, who is a senior programme management officer at the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, delivered a keynote speech on “Online University for the Least Developed Countries (OUL).” She described OUL as a global public good designed to expand access to affordable, flexible and inclusive STEM education; strengthen higher education systems and institutional capacity; improve quality through accreditation and international recognition; and build partnerships among UN agencies, academia, governments and the private sector.

Prof. Mohamed Jemni, who is the director of ICT Department at ALECSO, used his keynote speech, “From Artificial Intelligence to Collective Intelligence: Shaping the Future of Education,” to call for stronger connections between human, artificial, institutional and global collective intelligence. He outlined five priorities: keeping people at the centre; empowering rather than replacing teachers; developing multilingual, accessible and inclusive AI for education; strengthening ethical governance and responsible innovation; and advancing international collaboration and digital solidarity.

Datuk Dr. Habibah Abdul Rahim, who is the director of the SEAMEO Secretariat, focused on a central question in her keynote speech, “Smart Education in Asia: What Are We Really Transforming?” She argued that smart education should be designed around the needs of the most vulnerable learners, teachers, workers and institutions. Alongside investment in technology, she called for stronger institutional capacity in governance, leadership, teacher development, data protection and technological safeguards. She also highlighted the need for closer connections across basic, higher and vocational education, lifelong learning and the labour market as well as technologies and partnerships that respect linguistic and cultural diversity while strengthening human capabilities.

Mr. LI Yi, who is the director of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, highlighted four ways in which AI is opening up new frontiers for education in his presentation, “Expanding New Frontiers: Exploring a New Ecosystem for Smart Education.” These include reshaping when and where learning takes place to enable ubiquitous and continuous learning across different settings; breaking down boundaries between fields and redefining the scope and functions of education. He also pointed to the need for creating more dynamic and interchangeable roles among participants, and transform how educational services and content are accessed and delivered. He outlined Beijing’s approach to building a smart education ecosystem, with a focus on fostering new drivers of innovation and advancing educational transformation.

Mr. Liu Xiaodong, the Mayor of Changping District in Beijing, China, outlined three key areas of his district’s smart education practices in a presentation titled “Deepening University–City Collaboration: Jointly Exploring the ‘Changping Practice’ of Smart Education.” These include developing a district-wide, progressive AI curriculum system; strengthening university–district collaboration and industry–education integration; and expanding two-way channels for international cooperation. He said Changping would take GSE2026 as an opportunity to deepen the district’s collaboration with Beijing Normal University, further strengthen university–city integration, and continue to enhance its smart education practices, systems and ecosystem. 

Dr. LIU Dejian, the founder of NetDragon and Co-Dean of the Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University, delivered a recorded keynote speech titled “The Stronger AI Becomes, The More Humans Must Learn How To Learn.” He highlighted three priorities through the concept of on-demand learning, specifically, building pathways from fragmented questions towards personalised and systematic learning; pursuing efficiency without sacrificing deep thinking; and clearly defining responsibilities in human–AI collaboration. He argued that the AI era requires stakeholders to go beyond platforms, traditional curricula and research outputs to jointly rethink learning goals, content, tools, assessment and ethical boundaries.

Mr. ZHANG Chengtao, who is the Vice President of Huawei’s General Education Business Unit, highlighted several barriers to implementing AI in education, including the presences of an overly theoretical curricula, limited opportunities for practical application and insufficient computing and data infrastructure. He outlined efforts to develop AI general education centres and AI practice laboratories for schools and universities, and called for secure computing infrastructure, open AI platforms and collaborative talent-development ecosystems to support practical AI education across different stages of learning.

Mr. NIE Xiaolin, the co-founder of iFLYTEK and vice president of the China Association for Educational Technology, stressed the importance of developing reliable general-purpose and education-specific large language models, alongside tools and implementation guidance tailored to educational contexts. He called for evidence-informed, iterative development, with close attention to content safety, values, knowledge accuracy, educational appropriateness and educational purpose. He also advocated joint work on governance standards for AI in education and a more open ecosystem for shared development.

Mr. SUN Zhidong, the head of technology R&D and the AI Research Institute at Yuanfudao, presented the company’s work on an AI-powered reading agent built on multimodal large language models. The system combines multimodal perception, learning-path planning and guided instruction. He stressed that educational AI agents should be grounded in sound pedagogical principles, aligned with curriculum standards and responsive to learners’ cognitive development. He argued that AI should serve as scaffolding for learning rather than a substitute for the learner, to help make high-quality personalised education more widely accessible.

The perspectives shared from international organisations, as well as academic and industry bodies shared a common message: high-quality smart education will depend on deep collaboration across sectors and on the responsible use of AI. In his congratulatory message to the conference, Prof. Justin Yifu Lin, Dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University, noted that countries need to develop digital infrastructure in line with their own circumstances, strengthen the digital capacities of teachers and learners, and improve mechanisms for technology use and governance. He pointed out that only then can the potential of AI be translated into equitable, high-quality and sustainable educational development, allowing more people to benefit from technological progress.

Prof. KANG Zhen, the vice president of Beijing Normal University, moderated the opening ceremony and the launch of major conference outcomes. H.E. Ms. Faatamaalii Jenny Lauano, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Samoa’s Ministry of Education, moderated the ministerial high-level dialogue. The keynote sessions were co-moderated by Dr. Shafika Isaacs of UNESCO, H.E. Prof. Wilfred Nyongbet Gabsa, the secretary general of Cameroon’s Ministry of Higher Education, and Dr. Sarena Shivers, a board member of the ISTE.

From 18 to 20 August, GSE2026 featured plenary sessions, parallel forums and thematic events spanning early childhood, basic, higher and vocational education, as well as lifelong learning. Discussions covered AI governance in education, personalised student development and well-being, future teachers, future classrooms, future schools and future learning centres, together with research–education and industry–education collaboration. The programme also addressed rural education, special education, learning sciences and intelligent social experiments. Alongside the main conference, participants took part in the GSENet Partners Meeting, the Governing Board meeting of UNESCO IITE, the final round of the ninth Global Competition on Design for Futures for primary and secondary schools, a student forum, an industry–academia–research partnership dialogue, and an exhibition of innovations in smart education.

The conference was jointly organised by the Smart Learning Institute, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Psychology, China Institute of Education and Social Development, and the National Engineering Research Center of Cyberlearning and Intelligent Technology at Beijing Normal University. As an annual conference of the Global Smart Education Network (GSENet), GSE2026 was supported by partners including ALECSO, COL, ISTE, and SEAMEO. The conference also received support from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, NetDragon, Huawei, iFLYTEK, Yuanfudao, Ruifu AI, Higher Education Press, AVA, Chaoxing, Beijing Normal University Publishing Group, Wuhan Xingtu Xinke Electronics, ToyCloud Technology, Tencent Education, Onion Academy, Ziguang Modu Education Technology, 17 Education & Technology, and OUR SCHOOL AI.