The rapid spread of generative AI (GenAI) in classrooms and homes is intensifying longstanding questions about the role of digital technology in children’s learning, development and wellbeing. Governments are split between restricting and expanding it, often before the evidence is in, while school rules rarely reach children’s use at home. This leaves open which uses and designs support children’s learning, development and wellbeing, at what age, under what conditions, and what governments and schools should do meanwhile. 

Within this context, this iRAISE report focuses on digital and AI literacy in primary and secondary (K-12) schools, the most universally accessible and accountable institution in children’s lives. It takes a human-centred, pragmatic lens grounded in Biesta’s three purposes of education: qualification (acquiring knowledge and skills), socialisation (entering a shared culture) and subjectification (learning to think for oneself). 

Combining developmental and learning science, meta-analyses, international policy evidence and consultations in France, Canada, Egypt and Qatar, its findings move from the human relationships at the heart of learning to the systems that sustain them. Teachers, caregivers and peers, and the shared civic space of school, remain irreplaceable. Sustaining them requires protected teaching time, evaluated curricula, NGOs and universities, and coordinated public systems; in all four countries, human factors matter as much as policy design. We highlight six priorities for governments, schools, regulators, AI developers and funders: teachers and time to teach; wellbeing and time offline; research and assessment; families, communities and NGOs; interoperable, rights-respecting infrastructure; and a free, vendor-neutral international AI Fundamentals Programme and Certification.