DepEd targets AI literacy, training for 1.5 million Filipinos in 2026

The Department of Education (DepEd) said on Friday that 1.5 million learners, teachers, and parents will benefit from its newly launched artificial intelligence (AI) program this year, which aims to educate and train Filipinos on the emerging technology.

“Right now, only 1.5 million are affected,” Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara told reporters in an interview.

“Once we finish our curriculum, hopefully by the second quarter…it will be released nationwide because it’s a national curriculum everyone will benefit from it,” he added.

The Project Accelerating Governance and Adaptive Pedagogy through Artificial Intelligence (Project AGAP.AI) is a large-scale capacity-building program for AI initiatives in basic education, funded by the ASEAN Foundation and powered by Google.org.

Under the program, a nationwide AI training, branded as AI Ready ASEAN Philippines, is expected to introduce AI in plain language by teaching fundamentals, practical classroom usage, ethics, data privacy, and addressing risks such as misinformation.

The reform to integrate the AI concept into the curriculum and teacher training is also supported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Responsible AI for Social Empowerment & Education (RAISE) initiative and the Day of AI Initiative.

To complement classroom implementation, the AI-focused training modules for teachers will be rolled out in the second quarter of 2026.

“For teachers, [we are going to train them] how they can maximize, how can we make them more efficient and how to teach it,” Mr. Angara said.

“For students, how to research, and then, it’s gamified, as you can see, that’s why it’s attractive to students. It’s like they’re just playing,” he added.

Emerging AI-powered tools developed by the Education Center for AI Research (ECAIR) will also be piloted this year to support teaching, assessment, and school management. The DepEd said utilizing the new platforms will help strengthen data-driven and evidence-based decision-making within the education system.

“AI should not be a replacement for, as the President said in his speech, it’s not a replacement for hard work, for actual studying, for actual reading,” Mr. Angara said.

“Ethical use of AI is part of our training. What does that mean? We need to have rules. It’s not because it’s there that we’re going to use it to replace traditional thinking,” he added.

According to the National AI Strategy (NAIS PH) project of the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), the Philippines has set its goal to become an AI-powered country by 2028. — Almira Louise S. Martinez