Two National Guides Define the Boundary Between 'Learning About AI' and 'Using Generative AI Independently'

In May 2025, the Basic Education Teaching Steering Committee under China's Ministry of Education released the Guidelines for General Artificial Intelligence Education in Primary and Secondary Schools (2025 Edition) and the Guidelines for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence by Primary and Secondary School Students (2025 Edition). The former defines curriculum progression, while the latter governs generative AI use by students, teachers, schools, and education authorities.

At primary-school level, students are generally prohibited from using open-ended content generation on their own. Students may not use AI in examinations or tests or directly copy generated content to complete assignments. Teachers may not treat AI as a substitute instructional actor or directly use AI output to evaluate students. Sensitive data such as personal information and test questions may not be entered into tools that have not been reviewed.

The arrival of AI courses on campus does not give chatbots unconditional classroom access. Educational products need to meet age-tiering, teacher-control, data-protection, content-review, and school-admission requirements together.