While many parents still question whether to give their children access to artificial intelligence, Malaysian tech worker Pravin Ganesan has embraced it to solve a very practical problem: helping his eight-year-old daughter with homework he sometimes struggles to explain.

Pravin, 42, taught her a few basic prompts and checked the answers closely, finding that generative AI is particularly good at breaking down difficult concepts into child-friendly terms.

“It has helped her learn and understand things better,” the Kuala Lumpur-based father said. “As a parent, I sometimes find it hard to explain things in a way an eight-year-old can follow.”Across Malaysia, experiences like Pravin’s are becoming common as the country introduces AI into the classroom. But the promise of personalised, accessible learning has sparked debate over whether students truly understand the material, whether the digital divide is worsening and whether teachers are properly trained to guide them.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim warned on Tuesday that the embrace of digital technology must not come at the expense of students’ values and character.

Responding to a student’s question on whether tablets, laptops and AI would eventually become standard across all schools, Anwar said that while the country was moving towards greater use of technology in education, its limits had to be recognised.

“It has no values, no character and no humanity. It is merely intelligence,” he said, according to national news agency Bernama.

Anwar said that intellect alone was an insufficient measure of a person’s development, urging students to draw on the Malay concept of – a combination of intellectual capability and moral character – to preserve human qualities in an era of rapid technological disruption.

His remarks came as adoption surges. More than half a million students across the country are already using state-approved AI tools, according to the Education Ministry.

“Currently, 575,366 students are actively using AI tools through DELIMa,” Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said, referring to the ministry’s digital learning platform.

The ministry’s AI-Powered Classrooms initiative, which launched across 27 institutions, is scheduled to expand to 260 schools by the end of this year and 800 by late 2027, with a target of reaching all national schools by 2030.

Government data shows that Malaysia had more than 12,056 public and government-aided schools as of June 2025, with an estimated five million students currently enrolled nationwide.

“The ministry’s priority is to ensure technology strengthens the quality of education without diminishing the role of teachers,” Fadhlina said. “While AI can support more personalised learning, teachers remain essential in nurturing critical thinking and building the human connections that are fundamental to education.”The ministry says it provides continuous professional development to help teachers integrate AI into lesson plans. But frontline teacher representatives argue that official ambition is running ahead of reality in the classroom.

The National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) warned that enthusiasm among younger teachers must be backed by practical training.

“It is disappointing that teachers have not been provided with specific training on how to use the applications supplied by the Ministry of Education,” NUTP secretary general Fouzi Singon said.

Fouzi called for an independent audit to assess whether state-funded educational applications were achieving their objectives, warning that millions in public resources could be wasted if teachers were left to navigate the platforms without formal instruction.

According to the ministry, students are told never to input personal information, and tools are designed to encourage students to cross-check information and understand how answers are reached.

Fadhlina pointed to the Digital Education Teaching Assistant (DETa), a tool integrated into the DELIMa network that only sources information from ministry-approved textbooks and includes specific page citations so students can independently verify answers.

“If a child uses AI to solve a mathematics problem, for example, what matters is whether that child can explain how the answer was reached,” Fadhlina said. “Technology may help explain a concept, but a teacher understands when a child is struggling, knows when to encourage them and helps them develop the confidence to think for themselves.”Fadhlina said access to AI learning tools remained uneven across Malaysia, with rural and indigenous Orang Asli communities still lacking basic infrastructure such as reliable electricity, stable internet connectivity and laptops.

For parents like Pravin, the next step was to help students develop the habits needed to use AI effectively.

“I’d like the school to teach children how to use it properly so it helps them understand rather than just giving them the answers,” he said.