The Ministry of Education yesterday launched a four-year, NT$11.76 billion (US$372.53 million) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Talent Ark Project aimed at cultivating AI literacy among students and attaining a nationwide one-to-one student-to-tablet ratio.
The program is expected to drive local government investment in hardware and facilities, the ministry said, adding that it would focus on developing qualified teachers and enhancing educators’ abilities.
The ministry said it would provide grants for educator-AI collaboration and simulated teaching at four universities to foster educator talent.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Education
Experienced teachers will not always be available to advise aspiring teachers, but AI programs could offer a “better” option, program head Kuo Po-chen (郭伯臣) said.
The Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) stipulates that local governments would shoulder the brunt of funding for physical systems, while the central government would primarily provide digital content and educator support, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said.
The central government would also front the expenses for establishing digital learning offices, developing digital content and purchasing digital educational materials, Cheng said.
The central government expects every local administration to achieve the target of issuing every student a tablet for educational purposes within four years, he said.
The program, which has six subprograms, would cost the government NT$2.9 billion annually, with the digital content enrichment project and the digital education support projects receiving the greatest funding, at NT$1 billion and NT$1.6 billion respectively, ministry Secretary-General Lin Po-chiao (林伯樵) said.
An education big data analysis project would receive NT$70 million, a next-generation AI learning systems project NT$150 million, an enhancement of AI competence in the sciences project NT$65 million and a smart educator fostering program NT$60 million, Lin said.
The ministry would set a year-on-year goal to increase the percentage of students who are issued tablets, with local administrations that achieve the goal awarded greater funding as an incentive, he said.
Lin cited the junior-high and elementary-school learning amelioration project and other projects initiated from 2022 to last year to show that many local administrations have achieved a ratio of three to four students per tablet.
Ministry data showed that, as of last year, the outlying counties of Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang had achieved the goal of providing a tablet to every student.
Yunlin, Changhua and Nantou counties have also achieved the one-to-one goal, while Yilan County and Tainan have said they are implementing policies to achieve it over several years.
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