A Policy Perspective on AI and Equity: A Fireside Chat with Alina Sava

Episode Overview

In this episode of The EdTech Podcast, host Philippa Wraithmell speaks with Alina Sava, Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank, about the growing AI paradox in global education. Drawing on her experience across government reform, equity policy, and workforce development, Alina explores how artificial intelligence could become either a powerful leveller — or a deepening divider — depending on the decisions leaders make today.

Key Themes in This Episode

• AI as a leveller or divider in education
• Global inequality and the digital divide
• The role of governments in AI governance
• Teachers as central figures in AI-enabled learning
• AI literacy as essential infrastructure
• Workforce readiness and lifelong learning
• Protecting children through policy and safeguards
• Equity-first approaches to technology adoption

Why Listen to This Episode?

As AI adoption accelerates faster than education systems can reform, this episode offers a rare policy-level perspective grounded in global evidence. Alina Sava shares why focusing only on devices or tools misses the point — and why frameworks, governance, and equity-driven design must come first.

Listeners will gain insight into how AI can reduce teacher workload, support vulnerable learners, and personalise learning — but only when governments invest in access, skills, and safety simultaneously. This conversation is essential listening for anyone shaping strategy, policy, or system-wide change in education.

Who This Episode Is For?

• Education policymakers and system leaders
• School and trust leaders navigating AI adoption
• EdTech and AI innovators working in education
• Researchers and education economists
• Organisations focused on equity and access
• Anyone concerned about AI widening global inequality

Full Episode Description

Artificial intelligence is advancing at unprecedented speed, yet access, skills, and safeguards are not keeping pace. In this episode, The EdTech Podcast explores what host Philippa Wraithmell calls the “AI paradox”: the possibility that AI could either democratise learning or accelerate global inequality.

Philippa is joined by Alina Sava, Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank, who brings decades of experience across education reform, social policy, and equity-focused development. Alina explains how AI adoption is currently far higher in high-income countries, while many low-income regions lack the infrastructure, skills, and regulatory frameworks needed to participate meaningfully.

The conversation moves beyond tools and trends to focus on systems and policy. Alina argues that education’s response to AI can no longer rely on curriculum add-ons or isolated pilots. Instead, governments must prioritise three urgent roles: building practical AI literacy, protecting learners through clear boundaries on privacy and high-risk uses, and treating connectivity, computing power, and teacher capability as economic infrastructure.

A central theme is the enduring role of teachers. While AI can assist with planning, feedback, and reflection, Alina is clear that teachers remain irreplaceable. Human judgment, relationships, and classroom engagement will define quality education in an AI-enabled world.

The episode also explores workforce readiness, lifelong learning, and the danger of disengagement when systems fail to evolve. Alina shares why balanced, responsible adoption — rather than fear or blind acceleration — is essential, particularly when working with children.

Ultimately, this conversation is a call to action. If governments fail to act now, AI could widen existing divides. But with strong frameworks and equity-first thinking, it could become one of the most powerful tools education has ever had.