AI in the primary classroom: comparing Hong Kong with Mainland China
- primarytechreview
- Jul 8
- 9 min read
Hong Kong and Mainland China both systems provide children with access to AI tools, aiming to develop AI literacy and understanding of this powerful technology.
But closer examination of the policy and situation in Hong Kong and China reveal important differences in approach.
In this article, we explore the approaches that Hong Kong and Mainland China are taking towards children's use of AI in primary education. We look at the practical implications of these approaches for schools and attempt to understand the rationale behind each approach.
The strategy of Hong Kong: urgency and well-laid foundations
Hong Kong's vision and strategy for developing use of technology is laid out in the Blueprint for Digital Education Development in Primary and Secondary Schools. (link)
The opening sentence of the Blueprint for Digital Education states,
"In the face of the global digital transformation trend, we must proactively answer the call of the times: "What should education do about AI?""
It states,
"In alignment with our country's support for Hong Kong's positioning as an international innovation and technology (I&T) centre, primary and secondary education in Hong Kong must actively embrace the digital era and make early preparation."
The blueprint further states,
"Therefore, emphasising forward-looking planning, continuous optimisation and keeping pace with the times, the Education Bureau (EDB) drives all schools to comprehensively implement artificial intelligence (AI) education for students...holistically cultivating students' digital literacy, innovative thinking and capability to adapt to the future society."
These three quotes are important. They recognise that understanding of AI is a goal in itself and that education has a part to play in this. They also recognise that the future of Hong Kong and its continued development as a leader in innovation and technology depend upon both primary and secondary education preparing children through education about digital technologies. The final quote is interesting because the terms 'holistically' and 'innovative thinking'. These point to development of children's well being in the digital world, and development of their thinking skills, which has been a key consideration among all countries considering how use of AI affects children's cognition.
The objectives of the Blueprint for Digital Education are specified on page 9. These are:
1) To enhance students digital literacy, computational thinking, creativity and a sense of ethical responsibility
2) Strengthening teacher professionalism, enhancing teachers' pedagogical capabilities and drive a paradigm shift toward "student-centred learning"
3) Optimising infrastructure and resource support
4) Foster cross-sector collaboration, co-creating a digital education system
Indicators on pages 10 and 11 detail the expected implementation outcomes:
School level - All primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong will incorporate development strategies for digital education and AI into their school development plans and establish school timetables to drive a student-centred paradigm shift in teaching, learning and assessment.
System level - A comprehensive digital learning resource platform will be established through collaboration between various partners. This will be tailored to the local curriculum for primary and secondary schools and bring in high-quality educational resources from around the world.
Teacher level - All primary and secondary teachers in Hong Kong will complete foundational training on AI literacy and AI+subjects, with school leaders completing training on AI leadership.
Student level - Student learning experiences will be enriched, cultivating critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving skills, promoting self-directed learning and strengthening AI literacy.
The Blueprint for Digital Education, on page 15, highlights the importance of nurturing people, with technology being an auxiliary tool. It describes the "principle of the human mind as the mainstay, with the computer in a supporting role."
The Blueprint for Digital Education sets out four development focuses and ten implementation strategies for promoting the digital transformation of education. These are listed in page 19 and referred to throughout the rest of the blueprint.
The four focuses and ten implementation strategies are:
Key focus | Implementation strategy |
(I) Nurturing talents with both digital literacy and humanistic qualities | 1) Formulating an AI Literacy Learning Framework 2) Strengthening Maths, Science and Technology education to enhance students' I&T capabilities 3) Integrating digital education into the primary curriculum, promoting an AI+curriculum and implementing human-AI collaborative learning |
(II) Strengthening teacher training to drive digital transformation of education | 4) Formulating teacher professional training requirements 5) Providing tiered, diversified professional development, focusing on schools' capacity to lead change and pedagogical innovation |
(III) Optimising infrastructure to build smart campuses | 6) Promote the development of smart campuses and explore how AI can assist schools in handling administrative work, reduce workload and enhance capacity, school governance and efficacy 7) Leverage the enhanced School Development and Accountability (SDA) framework to drive school improvement 8) Strengthen support services, provide resources and build a platform for digital education learning resources |
(IV) Promoting cross-sector collaboration to co-create a digital education ecosystem | 9) Promote home-school cooperation 10) Bring together various stakeholders, including professional bodies, to build a digital education ecosystem |
Hong Kong's strategy for AI in primary education emphasises both urgency and well-laid foundations. Teacher training is mandated, both at teacher level and at leadership level. A separate document, Circular 221/2025 (link) details funding available to schools, further explains the rationale for incorporating digital technology and AI onto schools and explains how schools can send representatives for training. The strategy provides clear indicators of success, meaning that schools can quickly and accurately assess their progress according to the strategy and seek guidance and training for indicators as needed.
What this looks like in classrooms in Hong Kong
To find out more about how schools implement this strategy in practice, we can look at the guidance in Circular 221/2025, 'AI for Empowering Learning and Teaching Funding Programme Supporting primary and secondary school to utilise AI to enhance learning and teaching effectiveness'. (link)
This document states,
"Publicly funded primary and secondary schools are eligible to apply for the said funding programme. Successful school applicants will receive a one-off funding of $500,000. Schools can utilise the funding to initiate or promote school-based programs that use AI to empower education, tailored to their own specific circumstances and developmental needs..."
The circular states that schools participating in the funding programme must commit to fulfil the following requirements within the implementation period of the programme:
Incorporate the item, ""Development if AI-powered education into the school development plan and/or annual school plan
Implement AI-assisted teaching in at least three subjects/curriculum areas and develop at least six teaching examples or sets of learning and teaching resources with the application of AI
Conduct at least three open classes or classroom demonstrations on AI-assisted teaching in at least three different subject/curriculum areas
Organise at least three experience-sharing sessions on AI-assisted teaching
Host or arrange for students to participate in at least two student activities focusing on enhancing students' AI literacy skills
These requirements are frequently referred to as "3 x 2 x 6" by local educational technology consultants and school administrators in Hong Kong, as they require schools to implement AI assisted teaching in at least 3 subjects, ensure each chosen subject covers at least 2 grade levels and develop at least 6 concrete AI teaching examples/modules across those subjects.
The result of this funding requirement, as well as Hong Kong's overall digital and AI strategy is that use of AI has completely emerged from Computing as a subject and is becoming integrated in subjects across the curriculum.
Schools participating in the funding program are opening their doors to each other and to the wider community, showcasing and sharing how they use AI with students across the curriculum. Furthermore, because the blueprint demands the "human mind as the mainstay", primary classrooms are anchored in collaborative work and problem solving. Use of AI by children is experimental, with children being provided with creative tools to experiment and create with.
Mainland China: gradual exposure and computational logic
The result of Hong Kong's approach to AI in primary education is that students use AI tools creatively and experimentally in subjects across the curriculum, including at primary-level.
Mainland China takes a more gradual approach to introducing students to creative use of AI. The Ministry of Education released guidance on enhancing AI literacy in primary and secondary schools (link), stating,
"The focus should be on raising awareness about AI in the lower primary school grades; on understanding and using AI technology in the higher primary school grades and in lower middle school, and on project creation and application of advanced technologies at the upper middle school level."
In this guidance, the Ministry of Education specifically mentions thinking skills, stating, "It (the guidance) emphasises the enhancement of thinking skills and problem solving skills while raising students' digital literacy."
Interestingly, this guidance urges links between schools, universities research institutes and high-tech companies. The Ministry of Education urges teacher training and the recruitment of professionals from across these sectors. It also encourages AI laboratories and research institutes to make themselves accessible to primary and middle school students and to develop educational services for students from these schools.
Through the National Smart Education Platform for Primary and Secondary Education, the Ministry of Education aims to facilitate the sharing of high-quality AI resources. The National Smart Education Platform will launch a specific section on AI literacy, aiming to fulfil this goal.
The Australian Government Department of Education (link) reports China's AI Education goals for primary level as being:
Cognition | Spark interest through hands-on experiences with smart devices and basic AI concepts like speech and image recognition |
Skills | Develop basic AI skills by using simple tools, visual programming and practising data handling |
Thinking | Build foundational thinking by practising logical reasoning, task breakdown, and comparing AI with human behaviour |
Values | Deepen ethical understanding by recognising AI's strategic role in innovation and evaluating misinformation risks in generative technologies |
Again, based on these goals, the approach of Mainland China at primary level seems to be more on computational thinking and understanding how AI works, rather than the creative use across the curriculum encouraged by Hong Kong.
Ultimately, these goals help to demonstrate the regional divide between how Hong Kong and Mainland China are approaching AI in primary education. The approach of Hong Kong treats AI as a flexible, creative tool with the potential to enhance thinking and outputs across the curriculum. Mainland China focuses on computational thinking, requiring children to understand how AI works prior to giving them access to freer access to AI creative tools.
Economics and social factors driving educational policy
To understand why Hong Kong and Mainland China are training their children differently, it is helpful to be aware of the wider social and economic factors in each region.
Hong Kong: a knowledge-driven economy
Hong Kong operates a highly compact, specialised network of 591 elementary schools (420 aided schools, 116 private schools, 33 government schools and 21 direct subsidy scheme schools) (source). Government schools, aided schools and direct subsidy scheme schools follow the Blueprint for Digital Education Development, which outlines integration of AI in local education. International schools have greater freedom in terms of curriculum design and policy.
Hong Kong has virtually no physical natural resources. Instead, it relies on, what the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office calls, the Four Pillar Industries: Financial Services, Tourism and Hospitality, Transport, Infrastructure and Advanced manufacturing and Business and Professional Services, as well as the New Growth Industries: Creative Industries, FinTech, Multicultural Talent Pool, Innovation and Technology, Testing and Certification Services and Creative Industries. (source) As the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office states,
"New growth industries ... are identified by the Hong Kong government as the industries where Hong Kong enjoys advantages for further development."
Because Hong Kong's wealth is entirely knowledge-based, its human capital is its main natural resource. Hong Kong needs a workforce of highly agile, creative and innovative thinkers and its primary education system is aimed at laying the groundwork for this, including with its approach of use of AI by students.
Mainland China: a high-tech, industrial superpower
The Ministry of Education in China stated that in 2024, there were 143,500 regular primary schools. (source) China is rich in natural resources, including mineral resources, coal, petroleum, natural gas and rare earths. The Chinese Academy of Sciences states that "The national reserves of rare earth metals far exceed the combined total for the rest of the world." (source)
China enjoys vast tourism resources, with the World Travel and Tourism Council explaining, "China's Travel and Tourism (T&T) sector is undergoing a phase of accelerated expansion...placing the country firmly back on track to become the world's leading T&T economy in the coming years if current trends continue." (source)
In addition, China's manufacturing industry is, as China Briefing describes, "a cornerstone of China's economy", which "accounted for around 25 per cent of China's GDP." (source)
Finally, and notably, the China-Britain Business Council explains, (source)
"China is the fastest and most dynamic global market for emerging digital technologies...its digital economy is worth 30% of its GDP."
As the mainland steers through its national economic blueprints, it is undergoing a shift towards high-tech output. For a system of this scale to transition into a high-tech workforce, it requires highly disciplined, technologically proficient thinkers, capable of making the advances that will position China as a leader in technology development. The mainland curriculum prioritises computational logic and engineering mechanics over cross-curricular exploration, preparing the human infrastructure required to run the world's most dynamic digital economy.
Conclusion: Two divergent paths to a technological society
Hong Kong and Mainland China are dealing with the same technology, but approaching it according to the wider needs of society.
Both have realised that their future development depends on technological literacy. Both realise that thinking skills are of paramount importance, with China placing more emphasis on computational thinking and Hong Kong a greater emphasis on cross-curricular student agency and innovation.
The divergence raises an interesting wider question that other countries could benefit from considering: is it better for primary children to be given access to technological tools to create with, or to focus on understanding how the tools actually work?
The answer may not depend on the educational philosophy at all, but rather on what kind of society you are trying to build.
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