AI Risks to Critical Thinking: While generative AI can enhance learning (e.g., simulated virtual patients in medical education), over-reliance on shortcuts by students risks undermining independent reasoning, knowledge validation, and the patient development of critical thinking skills that traditional guided processes foster.

Need for Youth-Informed Curricula: Educational systems must actively incorporate young people’s practical experiences, struggles, and perspectives to better align curricula with real job-market demands, AI disruption, and broader societal challenges rather than remaining solely top-down designs by senior academics.

Call for Wisdom Beyond Credentials: Universities should prioritize reflective thinking, ethical judgment, emotional development, and lifelong learning over mere degrees; true educational success requires ongoing dialogue among educators, policymakers, parents, and youth to balance human wisdom with technology.

Educational curricula, often designed by senior academics, must actively value and embrace the perspectives of our youth if they are to meet students’ real needs and the demands of the world awaiting them.

We are now passing through a critical juncture marked by multifaceted challenges, where the potential of youth can serve as a vital guiding force in cocreating the future of education. This, in essence, reflects the spirit of this year’s International Day of Education theme.

Certain important aspects may require to be considered while reshaping our education.

One of the most pressing issues is artificial intelligence (AI) —one of humanity’s most remarkable achievements. Its purpose, like that of many great innovations, is undeniably noble: to make life easier and more comfortable on this earth. It is exciting, indeed!

I am not here to argue for or against AI, but to offer an evening reflection after conducting a medical class with its assistance. 

Alongside my traditional teaching, I created a simulated virtual patient using generative AI. Students interacted with it and enjoyed the learning experience.

The students engaged with this digital patient for nearly two hours, systematically working through a clinical problem under my guidance.

Had I asked them to solve the problem independently, without my facilitation, they would likely have completed it in a fraction of the time by taking shortcuts—just a few clicks........

© Eurasia Review