AI Governance and Readiness in Education and the Sustainable Development Goal 4: A Comparative Policy Review across South Asia

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence is entering classrooms across South Asia, while progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education has stalled. This paper compares AI governance and readiness across four South Asian countries that have completed formal, data-driven AI readiness assessments in education: India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and the Maldives. It then discusses Nepal’s National AI Policy, noting that the country has not yet run a scored readiness assessment or published baseline education data. Drawing on national AI policies, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and United Nations Development Programme readiness reports, and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Report 2026, the study finds that only 36% of assessable SDG targets are on track globally, and that 273 million children and young people remain out of school worldwide. Across the four comparator countries, common gaps appear in curriculum integration, teacher training, and gender participation in STEM and AI. Nepal shares these same gaps, but lacks the baseline data its neighbours have already collected. The paper proposes a conceptual framework that other resource-constrained countries can use to build AI governance into education systems to support SDG 4.