UNESCO and UNESCO IIEP Promote Regional Dialogue on Inclusive Digital Transformation in Education

The UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago and UNESCO IIEP in Latin America and the Caribbean organized a series of international seminars to examine the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation in education from an inclusion and equity perspective.

The webinars were held as part of the diploma programme Digital Talent for Educational Transformation and Innovation, under the Regional Alliance for Educational Transformation and Innovation (ARTIE), and brought together more than 700 participants, including authorities, specialists, teachers, researchers and public policy officials from across the region.

The series comprised the seminars “Perspectives on Educational Inclusion in the Age of AI: Emerging Frameworks from Latin America and the Caribbean” (6 June) and “Rethinking Digital Transformation in Education: Inclusion as a Continuous Process in Latin America and the Caribbean” (15 July). Throughout both events, the experts agreed that digital technologies and artificial intelligence can have a positive impact only when accompanied by inclusive public policies, evidence, monitoring mechanisms, regulatory frameworks, teacher training and the participation of education communities.

The sessions featured specialists from UNESCO, UNESCO IIEP, the Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report), SUMMA and other leading institutions, including Valtencir Mendes, Fernando Salvatierra, Amparo Naranjo Grijalva, Alejandra Cardini, Laura Stipanovic, Cristián Bravo, Jerónima Sandino, Javier González and Fiorella Haim.

One of the main points of consensus was that digital transformation cannot be understood solely as a technological agenda. The panellists emphasized that access to devices and connectivity is necessary, but not sufficient, to advance towards more equitable education. In this regard, they underscored the importance of strengthening institutional capacities, using data to guide decision-making, developing adaptive policies and ensuring that artificial intelligence helps to reduce, rather than deepen, existing inequalities.

“To achieve the inclusive use of technologies in education, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, the most unequal region in the world, it is essential to use disaggregated data, analyze risks and design proposals that are genuinely feasible in different contexts,” said Valtencir Mendes, Head of Education at the UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago, during the first event.

For her part, Alejandra Cardini, Acting Head of the UNESCO IIEP Office in Latin America and the Caribbean, stated during the second event that “digital inclusion is not something that can simply be decreed; it must be implemented. We may have sound policies and regulatory frameworks, but the decisive issue is what happens when those decisions reach schools, teachers and students. Inclusion must become the backbone of every digital transformation policy, from design through to implementation and evaluation.”

The specialists also emphasized that inclusion must guide the entire digital transformation process, from policy design to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. They further highlighted the need to promote ethical competencies, critical thinking, digital citizenship, media and information literacy, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence in education systems.

The discussions also drew on recent evidence from the Global Education Monitoring Report 2026, which warns of the challenges the international community still faces in ensuring access to education, retention and equity by 2030. These findings reaffirm the need to place technological innovation at the service of the right to education.