Artificial intelligence literacy in Somali education: balancing opportunities, risks, and policy directions

Abstract

Somalia’s education system continues to face severe constraints, including weak infrastructure, limited teacher support, and unequal access to learning resources. At the same time, generative artificial intelligence is increasingly entering educational practice through tools that can translate language, support writing, generate explanations, and extend tutoring beyond classroom hours. This Perspective argues that Somalia should respond neither by banning AI nor by adopting it without safeguards. Instead, AI literacy should be integrated as a foundational competency across secondary and tertiary education. Such an approach would help students use AI for language support, academic drafting, research planning, and personalized learning while also enabling them to identify hallucinations, bias, plagiarism risks, and privacy concerns. Drawing on a critical synthesis of recent peer-reviewed literature and policy documents, the article outlines the opportunities, risks, and implementation priorities for responsible AI adoption in Somalia. It shows that effective integration requires teacher professional development, curriculum revision, assessment reform, and clear ethical guidance. By combining opportunity with preparedness, Somalia can turn AI into a tool for educational inclusion and future readiness rather than a source of inequality or academic harm.