A graphic illustrates survey results showing how South Korean high school students use artificial intelligence for studying. Graphic by Asia Today and translated by UPI
March 11 (Asia Today) — Nearly half of South Korean high school students are using artificial intelligence to help them study, a survey showed, as the government moves to expand AI education in public schools.
According to a survey conducted by education company Jinaksa of 3,525 high school students nationwide, 47.7% said they use AI for studying at least once a week.
The most common usage frequency was once or twice per week at 25.2%. Another 14.4% said they use AI three times or more each week, while 8.1% reported using it almost daily.
Meanwhile, 22.7% said they never use AI for studying, and 29.6% said they use it only once or twice a month.
Students most frequently used AI to ask for explanations of unfamiliar concepts, accounting for 49.7% of responses. Other common uses included help solving problems at 29.0%, summarizing notes or reading passages at 27.9% and requesting feedback on answers at 17.4%.
The findings suggest students are not using AI simply to find correct answers but increasingly treat it as a question-based learning tool that explains concepts and helps guide problem-solving.
Education officials are also expanding artificial intelligence education in public schools.
The Ministry of Education said it has designated 1,141 elementary, middle and high schools nationwide as “AI focus schools” in cooperation with 17 regional education offices.
These schools will integrate AI-related lessons across subjects and expand interdisciplinary programs that combine artificial intelligence with existing curricula. Schools will also strengthen ethics education to encourage responsible use of AI and provide activities such as AI clubs and hands-on learning programs.
The ministry plans to gradually expand the program to 1,500 schools by 2027 and 2,000 schools by 2028.
Woo Yeon-cheol, director of the admissions strategy research institute at Jinaksa, said students are increasingly using AI as a form of “digital tutoring.”
“Students are not simply using AI to complete assignments,” Woo said. “They are using it to ask questions about concepts they do not understand and to check the direction of problem solving.”
He added that the ability to ask questions anytime and receive immediate explanations is helping AI become a new learning support tool.
Woo also noted that even as the government moves to expand AI-based education in schools, students have already been adapting quickly to AI-driven learning environments outside the classroom.
After some 150 students walked out of Redlands schools early this month in support of immigrants they were dealt an unexpected consequence: a temporary suspension of school privileges as administrators enforced rules that forbid them from leaving a classroom without permission.
The punishment — the loss of access to sports, dances, performances and other school events — in a school system with a conservative-majority governing board stands in sharp contrast to the positive reception that student activism has received in some other California school systems, including Los Angeles Unified School District.
The disparate actions show how school officials throughout various states and school systems — in blue and red regions — have been dealing with a wave of student walkouts that began in late January as part of national protests over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown.
Redlands school officials said the suspension of privileges will remain in place until a student satisfies certain conditions, such as attending a session of Saturday school or performing four hours of community service.
“The superintendent’s message is consistent: We care deeply about our students, and we recognize that many young people are dealing and engaging with issues they see in the news and in their community,” said district Public Information Officer Christine Stephens. “Students have the right to express themselves peacefully. At the same time, the district must uphold its responsibility to maintain a safe, supervised learning environment during the school day.”
Districts that expressed support for students’ free-speech rights included those in San Francisco and Sacramento. In Palo Alto, district officials worked with schools to make sure students could carry out their announced walkout safely.
L.A. Unified officials have not set districtwide penalties for walkouts — and its leaders align with the students’ anti-ICE critique. Supt. Alberto Carvalho, an immigrant himself, has pledged to do all in the district’s power to maintain schools as sanctuaries for children of immigrant families — and activists patrol outside schools to help ensure safe passage to campus for parents and students.
At the same time, LAUSD educators have encouraged students to stay on campus for safety reasons. In L.A. there were reports of physical confrontations between officers and protesters after students walked out on Feb. 5 and on Feb. 13, when three federal agents were injured after some in the crowd threw objects at them.
State and education leaders in Texas and Florida outlined significant consequences for students and educators related to student walkouts. In Texas, state leaders have talked about possible suspension and expulsion for students, dismissal for educators and state takeovers for school districts.
The ACLU of Georgia sent a letter Jan. 29 expressing concerns to the Cobb County School District after it threatened out-of-school suspension, loss of parking and extracurricular privileges and warned of college admissions consequences for participation in walkouts.
The ACLU warned that the school system would be acting illegally if walkout participants were singled out for especially harsh treatment based on their viewpoints.
The young activists
Student high school activists — in Redlands and elsewhere — said they are willing to face consequences, if necessary, to stand up for what they believe by protesting the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“As organizers, it’s expected for us to take the first wave of retaliation,” said Redlands High School senior Jax Hardy. “So while we would be very disappointed in the district for doing such a thing, for us, it’s important to exercise our free speech rights to oppose a government that is encroaching on our human rights.”
Student leaders see their protests as a civics lesson in action.
“It’s necessary to act, because, if we don’t, who knows how things will escalate further,” said Redlands High junior Aya F, who goes by her last initial rather than her full legal name. “So that’s why we feel it’s important for us to stage this walkout.”
Redlands is about 60 miles east of downtown L.A. and enrolls about 20,000 students. In November 2024 a conservative majority was elected to the five-person Redlands Board of Education, aligning the board with key policies of the Trump administration. Redlands joined a handful of ideologically similar California boards in approving policies that would allow parents to challenge library books with sexual content and prohibit display of the rainbow pride flag, which is associated with the LGBTQ+ community.
But the district stated that its actions on the walkouts have no ideology attached.
“The district’s response is not based on the viewpoint, theme or content of a student’s expression,” Stephens said.
Students walk out despite punishment
Some Redlands students organized another walkout Friday and organizers said they expected representation from students at seven middle and high schools. Many showed up from Redlands High School. They carried “Stop ICE” signs and Mexican flags and blew whistles as they made a 15-minute trek to a downtown intersection that some refer to as “Peace Corner.”
“I haven’t seen this many people in Redlands do anything ever,” said sophomore James Bojado, who also said that, for days, administrators had attempted to dissuade students with threats of discipline.
Several Redlands police vehicles patrolled the rally area, slowly rolling by.
A man in a sun hat shouted: “Why don’t you fly the American flag? Are you ashamed of America?”
“Leave us alone!” a chorus responded.
“My mom and my dad are immigrants,” said sophomore Carmen Robles. “Why deport families that care about America back to where they came from?”
At the rally, student demands included an ironclad district commitment that ICE will never be allowed on campus. Students also called for the abolition of ICE and spoke of wanting the school board to rescind what they regard as anti-LGBTQ+ policies. These include the flag ban and the book restriction policy.
During the Friday Redlands rally, there were a few tense minutes when a student in a MAGA hat was pelted by water bottles. The student spoke to police but also said he wasn’t hurt.
A person wearing a MAGA hat gets water and pizza thrown at him during a student walkout and protest in Redlands.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Adult volunteers were on hand with the goal of keeping things safe and positive. Parent Toni Belcher said that students have a right to be heard.
“I’m happy to see all these kids trying to get their voice to matter,” Belcher said. “If it doesn’t now, it will. … They’re starting early.”
What the law says
The right of students to express themselves begins with the U.S. Constitution.
“You do not lose your right to free speech just by walking into school,” according to guidance from the American Civil Liberties Union. “You have the right to speak out, hand out flyers and petitions and wear expressive clothing in school — as long as you don’t disrupt the functioning of the school or violate the school’s content-neutral policies.”
A walkout, however, could be treated as a disruption. But greater punishment cannot be applied based on the nature of the views expressed.
Redlands Unified believes it is complying with that legal standard.
California law offers some additional protection for student protests, but it’s not unlimited.
A California law, which took effect in 2023, allows a middle or high school student to miss one day of school per year as an excused absence for a “civic or political event.” This includes, but is not limited to, “voting, poll-working, strikes, public-commenting, candidate speeches, political or civic forums and town halls.”
The bill’s author, then-state Sen. Connie Leyva, said at the time that the law “emphasizes the importance of getting students more involved in government and their community by prioritizing student opportunities for civic learning and engagement both within and outside their education.”
One caveat is that the law requires that “the pupil notifies the school ahead of the absence.”
Students exercising this right must be allowed to make up missed schoolwork without penalty. There are potential gray areas — such as whether a large-scale school walkout — which organizers intend to be dramatic — would fall outside this protection because students don’t formally check out, for example.
One Redlands parent said he notified the school that his son had permission to take part in an earlier walkout after the walkout. But his son was still penalized because, the parent said, he was not allowed to grant permission for his son retroactively.
State law does require advance notice, but it does not say parental permission is required for that one protected civic activity day per year. The law also stipulates that schools, at their discretion, can allow additional excused absences for civic participation.
The parent, who did not want to be named out of concern for retaliation, said his son was placed on a “No-Go List” for extracurricular activities and events.
A United States court has ordered the administration of President Donald Trump to facilitate the return of a Babson College student, Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, who was wrongfully deported last year.
In his ruling on Tuesday, US District Judge Richard Stearns gave the government two weeks to take steps to bring Lopez Belloza back.
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He framed the order as an opportunity to correct a “mistake” – but he did not rule out holding the government in contempt if it failed to take the necessary actions.
“Wisdom counsels that redemption may be found by acknowledging and fixing our own errors,” Stearns wrote.
“In this unfortunate case, the government commendably admits that it did wrong. Now it is time for the government to make amends.”
A surprise trip turned deportation
Lopez Belloza, 19, was arrested on November 20 by immigration agents at Boston’s Logan airport.
The college freshman had been preparing to board a flight home to her family in Texas to surprise them for the Thanksgiving holiday.
She has since told The Associated Press news agency that she was denied access to a lawyer after her initial detention at the airport. The immigration agent told her she would need to sign a deportation document first, according to Lopez Belloza, who said she denied the offer.
For the next two nights, she said she was kept by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a holding room with 17 other women, without enough room to lie down.
Then, she was loaded onto a deportation flight, which took her to Texas, then to her native Honduras, on November 22.
“I was numb the whole plane ride,” Lopez Belloza told the AP. “I just kept questioning myself. Why is it happening to me?”
Her lawyers, however, had obtained during that time a court order barring her removal from Massachusetts for 72 hours. Lopez Belloza’s deportation violated that court order.
She has remained in Honduras for the last two and a half months, while legal challenges over her case proceeded.
Babson College student Any Lucia Lopez Belloza poses after graduating from high school in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2025 [Handout via Reuters]
A legal battle
In court, the Trump administration has apologised for the error in Lopez Belloza’s case, acknowledging that a mistake was indeed made.
“On behalf of the government, we want to sincerely apologise,” prosecutor Mark Sauter told the court.
But Sauter rejected accusations that the government wilfully defied the 72-hour court order, saying that Lopez Belloza’s deportation was the mistake of one ICE agent and not an act of judicial defiance.
The government has also argued that Lopez Belloza was subject to a removal order before her November 20 arrest and therefore should not be returned to the US.
Lopez Belloza was brought to the US from Honduras when she was eight years old, and in 2016, she and her mother were ordered to be deported.
But the college freshman said she had no knowledge of any deportation order and has told the media that her previous legal representation had assured her there was no removal order against her.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration has rejected efforts to bring Lopez Belloza back to the country, even on a student visa.
In a February 6 court filing, US Attorney Leah B Foley wrote that a student visa “is unfeasible as the Secretary of State lacks authority to adjudicate visa applications and issue visas”.
“In any event,” Foley added, “Petitioner appears ineligible for a student visa.” She explained that Lopez Belloza “would remain subject to detention and removal if returned to the United States”.
The filing ended with a warning to the court to “refrain from ordering Respondents to return Petitioner to the status quo because this Court lacks authority”.
The Trump administration has questioned the authority of federal courts to intervene in immigration-related matters.
A series of mistakes
Critics, meanwhile, have accused the Trump administration of repeatedly failing to heed court orders it disagrees with.
Lopez Belloza’s case is not the first instance of an immigrant being wrongfully deported since the start of Trump’s second term.
Trump had campaigned on a pledge of mass deportation, and he has followed through with that promise, leading a series of controversial immigration crackdowns that have been accused of violating due process rights.
One of the most high-profile cases came in March 2025, when his administration wrongfully deported a Salvadoran father named Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who lived in Maryland with his wife, a US citizen.
Abrego Garcia had been subject to a 2019 court order barring his removal from the US on the basis that he could face gang violence in El Salvador.
But he was nevertheless sent back to the country and was briefly held in El Salvador’s Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT), a maximum-security prison.
On April 10, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, largely upholding a lower court’s decision.
But the Trump administration initially argued Abrego Garcia was outside of its power. Then, on June 6, it abruptly announced Abrego Garcia had been returned, only to file criminal charges against him and seek his deportation a second time.
Another case involved a Guatemalan man, identified only by his initials OCG.
He had been under a court protection order that barred him from being returned to Guatemala, for fear that his identity as a gay man would subject him to persecution.
But the Trump administration detained and deported him instead to Mexico, which in turn sent him back to Guatemala. He subsequently went into hiding for his safety.
In June, OCG was returned to the US after a court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return. It also noted that OCG’s deportation “lacked any semblance of due process”.
Lopez Belloza continues her studies at Babson College remotely from Honduras as she awaits the outcome of her legal proceedings.
Feb. 11 (UPI) — About 90,000 undocumented students reach the end of high school each year and researchers say their opportunities to pursue higher education are rapidly shrinking.
The President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration and the Migration Policy Institute found that about 75,000 students without legal status graduate annually. It is a milestone that has been encouraged by state and federal policy for decades as migrants seek citizenship in the United States, but rollbacks on tuition equity and other policies are making it harder for many of them to continue their education.
The study is based on U.S. Census Bureau and National Center for Education Statistics data from 2023, prior to President Donald Trump‘s return to the White House.
However, his more aggressive immigration enforcement tactics and pressure to end birthright citizenship and temporary protected status have made the future of these students one with even more challenges, Corinne Kentor, senior manager of research and policy with the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, told UPI.
“We’re seeing a lot of institutions who are trying very hard to retain services for students and also comply with a bunch of very confusing directives coming at the federal level,” Kentor said. “There’s a fear about keeping programs and services that are particularly geared toward the immigrant-origin students available because the institution wants to make sure that they’re in compliance with federal directives.”
Prior to 2024, 25 states and the District of Columbia had policies guaranteeing undocumented immigrant students access to in-state tuition. This granted a path for those students to receive financial aid services and made enrollment in local colleges and universities possible for many.
Kentor said these policies helped these students not just enroll in their degree programs but also finish them.
In the past year, that has begun to change.
Florida’s legislature repealed its in-state tuition policy that had been in place for 10 years. The Department of Justice followed with a lawsuit to repeal the Texas Dream Act after its state legislature shot down numerous similar attempts. A permanent injunction blocking in-state tuition access for an estimated 12,000 students each year was granted.
The Justice Department was also successful in a lawsuit against Oklahoma.
The Trump administration has filed similar lawsuits against California, Virginia, Illinois and Minnesota. Kentucky officials settled such a lawsuit by agreeing to end their tuition policy in September.
Texas, Florida, California and New York account for nearly half of all undocumented immigrants graduating each year. California has about 11,000 who graduate annually, Florida has about 8,000 and New York, about 4,000.
The lawsuits by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi claim that offering in-state tuition to non-citizen students is “illegally discriminating against American students.”
Kentor said this is a common misconception that leads people to oppose opportunities for immigrants in education as well as other places in society like the workplace.
“There’s this sense that if one person gets a spot, then another person doesn’t,” she said. “The reality is that welcoming immigrant students into higher education, into workplaces, into the communities that they’re already a part of, creates more opportunities for U.S. citizens. There’s this scarcity mindset that moves into a competition mindset when actually providing opportunities just opens up more spots.”
As legal battles and policy decisions play out in courtrooms, statehouses and government offices, the effects are being felt in classrooms, at bus stops and in homes.
The population of undocumented students reaching the end of high school has continued at similar levels each year but this year’s class is in a particularly precarious position. Immigration raids across the country have not just seniors but all immigrant students, regardless of legal status, facing fears of losing family members to detention and physical harm.
Jeanne Batalova, senior policy analyst and data manager for the Migration Policy Institute and its Data Hub, authored the organization’s report “Graduating into Uncertainty: Unauthorized Immigrant Students in U.S. High Schools.” She told UPI that current immigration crackdowns are also affecting the education students are receiving in K-12 schools.
Batalova said California reported a 22% increase in absences in January and February 2025 over 2024.
This was as Trump returned to office and issued a slate of executive orders directing ramped up immigration enforcement. Among his executive orders was a day one order to end the sensitive locations policy that barred immigration officials from doing enforcement activities at schools, hospitals, churches and community event sites.
“This fear that anyone knocking on the door could be an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] team busting through the door, I can only imagine the impact it is having on the entire family,” Batalova said. “When immigration enforcement ramped up at work sites during the first Trump administration, the impact on mental health was very noticeable. There was difficulty focusing on studying for children whose parents or family members were affected. At that time, kids themselves were not in the line of fire, so to speak.”
Ending policies like the sensitive locations policy and reversing course on pathways to higher education mark a change in direction from more than two decades of bipartisan support for paths to citizenship.
“For this particular population, education, both secondary and post-secondary education, has always been closely tied to their opportunity to legalize their status,” Batalova said. “A status that they themselves had no control over when they were first brought here as young children, and second, by policymakers in the United States.”
Batalova said education has been a “major engine for social and economic mobility” because it opens doors to new career opportunities and self-improvement. At a time when the president is offering a “gold card” for wealthy migrants to buy their way into U.S. citizenship, closing doors to undocumented children is a stark contrast.
“At a time of anti-immigrant rhetoric and stepped-up enforcement on the part of this administration, the future for the students is uncertain,” Batalova said. “Not only in terms of if they can go on to pursue a college degree because of state tuition. It’s if they can go outside to the library, to the university, as well as the mental impact of studying.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a press conference at the Department of Justice Headquarters on Friday. Justice Department officials have announced that the FBI has arrested Zubayr al-Bakoush, a suspect in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
