This photo shows a sample digital textbook on display during a trade fair in Seoul on Sept. 22, 2022. Digital school textbooks customized to meet the different educational needs of students in various academic levels will go into use in 2025. Yonhap

Digital school textbooks customized to meet the different educational needs of students in various academic levels will go into use in 2025, beginning with a few subjects, including mathematics, the Education Ministry said Thursday.

Harnessing artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies, such textbooks will be adopted in stages beginning in 2025, the ministry said in its 2023 policy plans submitted to President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Under the plans, the ministry will also consider a scheme to have each student own a personal device by 2025 to be able to access digital content, ministry officials said.

The ministry plans to draw up guidelines for the development of digital textbooks by July and publicly announce them to textbook writers in August, a ministry official said.

Elementary school third- and four-graders and middle- and high-school freshmen in 2025 will be the first to benefit from the program, he said. (Yonhap)