UNESCO’s 2026 ICT in Education Prize: Using AI to Power Creativity and Critical Thinking

As AI tools become common in classrooms, a big question remains: are we using AI just to save time, or to genuinely deepen learning? UNESCO’s 2026 edition of the ICT in Education Prize gives a clear answer. This year’s theme, “Reimagining creativity and critical thinking with artificial intelligence,” challenges schools, NGOs, universities, and edtech innovators to prove that AI can expand human thinking instead of flattening it.

A global prize focused on AI and deeper learning

The UNESCO ICT in Education Prize is a prestigious international award that recognizes outstanding projects using digital technologies to transform teaching and learning. For 2026, the prize explicitly focuses on how artificial intelligence can enhance—not replace—human creativity and critical thinking in education.

According to UNESCO’s official call, the 2026 edition seeks projects that show how teachers and learners engage with AI systems in ways that:

• Encourage critical thinking, imagination, and creativity

• Challenge the “flattening effects” of AI on human capacities (for example, when students over-rely on AI for ready-made answers)

• Preserve learners’ capacity for reasoning, discernment, and original thought across formal, non-formal, and informal education settings

Two laureates will be selected, each receiving USD 25,000, a diploma, and global recognition, making it one of the most visible platforms for AI-in-education innovation worldwide.

What kind of AI projects is UNESCO looking for?

UNESCO and partner organizations describe the 2026 theme in very practical terms. The call for nominations explains that submissions should highlight evidence-based practices—real projects that are already running and can show results, not just ideas on paper. Each submission is expected to provide insight into four main areas:

1. Contexts of AI use and co-creationProjects should describe the learning contexts where AI is used: age groups, subjects, types of schools (urban, rural, public, private), and whether learning happens in classrooms, online, or in community settings. UNESCO is particularly interested in how teachers and learners co-create with AI, not just consume AI outputs.

1. Teaching strategies that cultivate critical thinking and creativityNominations should explain how educators design activities where AI becomes a tool for questioning, exploring, designing, and experimenting, rather than a shortcut for quick answers. Examples include using AI to compare multiple perspectives, critique generated content, or build creative projects like stories, prototypes, or simulations.

1. Learning with AI: how students actually use itProjects must show how learners use AI to question, interrogate, explore, write, problem-solve, or create, and how they resist the temptation to offload their thinking to the machine. Submissions should share evidence on how AI affects student motivation, participation, collaboration, and critical thinking.

1. Assessment, ethics, and impactWhile the detailed criteria vary, UNESCO expects projects to align with broader principles around ethical AI use, inclusion, and academic integrity, and to back their claims with data or qualitative evidence.

In short, UNESCO is not interested in AI tools that simply generate content for students. Instead, it wants to showcase examples where AI is integrated into pedagogy, classroom dialogue, and project-based learning in ways that support higher-order skills.

Why UNESCO is centering creativity and critical thinking

UNESCO’s broader work on AI and education explains why this theme is so important. In policy papers and books like “AI and the Future of Education: Disruptions, Dilemmas and Directions,” UNESCO describes how AI is reshaping what it means to teach and learn. The organization highlights three big issues:

• Disruptions – AI changes how knowledge is produced, accessed, and shared, from generative text to multimodal tools.

• Dilemmas – AI can improve learning but can also encourage shortcuts, undermine academic integrity, or widen inequalities.

• Directions – Education systems must choose how to integrate AI in ways that strengthen core human skills, not weaken them.

The Santiago Consensus, adopted at the World Summit on Teachers, reinforced a central principle: AI must support, not replace, educators. That means future-ready education should invest heavily in teacher development, human-centered pedagogy, and frameworks where AI augments teacher expertise rather than displacing it.

UNESCO’s 2024 AI Competency Framework for Teachers aligns with this view. It outlines five key competency areas teachers need in an AI-rich era: human-centred mindset, AI ethics, AI foundations and applications, AI pedagogy, and AI for professional development. The framework describes three progression levels—acquire, deepen, and create—so teachers can move from basic AI awareness to designing and innovating with AI in their own practice. Creativity and critical thinking are woven through these competencies, not treated as optional extras.

Against this background, the 2026 ICT in Education Prize theme acts like a spotlight: it shines attention on projects that put human creativity, critical inquiry, and imagination at the heart of AI use in education.

How to get nominated for the 2026 prize

The nomination process for the UNESCO ICT in Education Prize follows a structured route. Individual schools, teachers, or organizations cannot apply directly to UNESCO; instead, they must be nominated by either:

• A UNESCO National Commission, or

• An NGO in official partnership with UNESCO

The typical steps are:

1. Identify a project that is already operational for at least one year and clearly aligned with the theme of creativity and critical thinking with AI.

1. Prepare documentation showing objectives, context, AI tools used, teaching and learning strategies, evidence of impact, and governance/ethics approach.

1. Contact your country’s UNESCO National Commission or an official partner NGO and request support for nomination.

1. Submit the full nomination dossier through the UNESCO online platform before the deadline.

Some partner platforms note that the application deadline for this edition is in early May 2026 (for example, 8 May 2026 or similar, depending on the intermediary) with UNESCO’s own call referencing late May as a cut-off for complete nominations. Applicants should always confirm the exact deadline and requirements from the official UNESCO page and their National Commission.

What this means for schools, teachers, and AI projects

For schools, teachers, and AI-focused platforms like AI Ready School, the 2026 UNESCO ICT in Education Prize is more than an award; it is a trend signal:

• The global conversation is moving from “AI for automation” to “AI for deeper learning.”

• Projects that combine AI with project-based learning, inquiry, design thinking, and collaborative problem-solving are gaining international attention.

• Teacher agency, ethics, and human-centered design remain non-negotiable in UNESCO’s view of AI in education.

If you are working with schools, you can use this moment to:

• Design or refine AI-powered activities that ask students to critique AI outputs, generate original work, and reflect on their own thinking.

• Help teachers build competencies around AI ethics, human-centered pedagogy, and creative use of AI tools in line with UNESCO’s frameworks.

• Explore whether your projects could qualify for future ICT in Education Prize calls by documenting impact and aligning clearly with creativity and critical thinking goals.

This is a strong signal that future-ready education is not about letting AI think for learners, but about teaching learners to think with AI—critically, creatively, and responsibly.

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