To mark the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the use of ICT in education, UNESCO calls for nominations for the special 2025 edition on the theme “Preparing learners and teachers for the ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence”.
The aim of this year’s edition is to recognize projects that enable young generations and education stakeholders to develop requisite competencies in AI that enable creativity and critical thinking for the responsible and ethical design and use of this increasingly ubiquitous technology.
Education is key to cultivating critical AI literacy
Education plays a foundational role to cultivate critical AI literacy among teachers and learners. This includes an understanding of how the technology works, its evolving capabilities, strengths, limitations, and risks – involving not only technical knowledge but also ethical and critical awareness of AI.
With such critical competencies, teachers and learners can not only understand AI tools and apply them ethically and responsibly in education and beyond, but also actively co-create AI to achieve specific, positive outcomes that we collectively aim for.
Within this context, the 2025 UNESCO ICT in Education Prize seeks to promote best practices that include
- training programmes, curricula, competency frameworks, and professional development models for teachers and learners on AI, across all education levels and in both formal and non-formal learning environments; and/or
- institutional guidance, policy documents, and practical strategies.
About the prize
For this special edition, four winners will be selected by the Director-General of UNESCO, based on the recommendations from an independent international Jury. Each winner will receive a reward of US$ 25,000 and international recognition during an award ceremony, to be held in September 2025.