In 92% of universities worldwide, students use artificial intelligence. In South Korea, school textbooks adapt in real time to each student’s level. The United Arab Emirates has had a Ministry of AI since 2017. And Tunisia? Its students use ChatGPT in secret, teachers worry, and no national strategy exists yet. The delay is real. But the means to catch up are there—if action is taken now.
At the end of 2022, ChatGPT appeared on screens around the world. Within weeks, millions of pupils and students began using it to write assignments, prepare presentations, and find answers at any time. Tunisia was no exception. Students adopted the tool enthusiastically. Teachers, however, mostly saw it as a risk of cheating, rarely as a pedagogical opportunity.
This gap is not trivial. It reveals a broader reality: while the rest of the world is structuring, training, and investing in educational AI, Tunisia is still moving without a compass. No national strategy. No digital textbooks in public schools. Limited infrastructure. And yet—this is the paradox—the country trains nearly 1,400 AI specialists every year and ranks second in Africa for preparing talent in this field. A real potential that risks fading if not organized.
AI in Schools: A Concrete Revolution, Not Fiction
To understand the urgency, we must first understand what artificial intelligence actually changes in a classroom, beyond abstract discourse.
For students, the most immediate benefit is personalization. Instead of one identical lesson for everyone, tools like Khan Academy adapt exercises in real time to each learner’s level and pace. A struggling student receives a different explanation, while an advanced one is challenged further. It’s like having a private tutor—without the cost.
For students with disabilities, AI opens real doors: applications can read texts aloud for the visually impaired, translate into sign language for the hearing impaired, or turn assignments into games for dyslexic learners. School becomes more accessible, without additional human cost.
For teachers, AI can take over the most time-consuming tasks: preparing varied teaching materials, grading papers, generating tailored exercises. Freed from these repetitive tasks, teachers can focus on what machines will never replace: listening to struggling students, sharing passion, building relationships. AI is not here to replace teachers, but to restore their core mission.
What Others Are Doing—and the Cost of Inaction
The world has not waited. Since 2023, initiatives have multiplied at a dizzying pace.
In South Korea, the Ministry of Education certified 76 AI-based textbooks for primary and secondary students starting in the 2025 school year. These textbooks automatically adapt to each student’s level in mathematics, English, and computer science. Children begin learning the basics of AI as early as age 8.
In China, AI analyzes the performance of millions of students to identify, region by region, which parts of the curriculum are not well understood, and adjusts content accordingly. In rural areas lacking qualified teachers, intelligent digital tutors step in.
In the United Arab Emirates, a dedicated Ministry of AI has existed since 2017. The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, inaugurated in 2019, is the world’s first university entirely dedicated to AI research. In the United Kingdom, AI is officially presented as a support tool for teachers, helping them teach better—not less.
Meanwhile in Tunisia, textbooks remain paper-based. Digital education platforms are almost absent from public institutions. IT infrastructure is insufficient, both in major cities and rural areas. Existing initiatives—such as workshops by the Virtual University of Tunis, training by the Khawarizmi Center, and efforts by pioneering teachers—remain scattered. They are driven by motivated individuals, without a national framework to scale them. This is not inevitable. It is a window of opportunity that is closing.
A Realistic Roadmap, Adapted to Tunisia’s Means
The good news is that catching up does not require a massive budget. What is needed is a method—and the will to follow it.
First, governance. The first step is to have a leader. The Higher Council of Education, created in May 2025, is the ideal body to coordinate an AI strategy across all relevant ministries: Education, Vocational Training, and Higher Education. Two already active structures could serve as operational arms: the CNTE for schools and the Virtual University of Tunis for universities.
Next, training. There is no need to turn teachers into engineers. The goal is to train “AI Enablers”—teachers capable of using the right tools, integrating them into their lessons, and explaining to students how AI works and what its limits are. The proposed method is cost-effective: first train a small cohort of regional trainers, who will then train their peers. Free resources already exist (Khan Academy, Google Digital Workshops, MOOCs from the University of Helsinki) and can be used immediately.
Finally, innovate with what already exists. Equipping every student with a laptop is not realistic in the short term. But smartphones are already in the pockets of most Tunisian students. Lightweight, free applications—even those that work without stable internet—can transform this everyday device into a personalized learning tool. This “mobile-first” approach is pragmatic, cost-effective, and already successfully adopted in several African countries with similar resources.
Artificial intelligence will not wait for Tunisia to be ready. It is already here—on students’ screens, in the informal practices of the most curious teachers, and in the labs of Tunisian startups innovating without a safety net. What is missing is not talent. Nor is it money—the proposed solutions are deliberately low-cost. What is missing is the decision to build a shared, clear, and sustainable framework.
Every year without a national strategy is a cohort of students learning to use AI without ever being taught how—or why. And it is another opportunity to close the gap that slips further away.
