AI ‘biggest thing to hit education in 100 years’, historian says

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the biggest thing to hit education in 100 years and will change the design of schools within three decades, a historian and author has said.

Sir Anthony Seldon, a former private school headteacher and co-founder of AI in Education said technology could mean that more of the “heavy lifting of learning” will be done by a pupil individually, rather than in a classroom.

It comes after Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said harnessing technology in schools can help to tackle the “crisis of belonging” among pupils and help to reduce teacher shortages.

Speaking at tech event The British Educational Training and Technology (Bett) Show in London on Wednesday, Ms Phillipson set out plans to use technology as a “positive, radical, modernising force” and spoke of a system where teachers are “set free” by AI, meaning “less marking, less planning and less form planning”.

Sir Anthony praised her “very strong and brave intervention”, saying her comments were a “landmark”.

AI in Education, which he co-founded, advises schools on which AI developments are likely to be beneficial, and which may be damaging.

Sir Anthony told the PA news agency: “It will be such a different world because the heavy lifting and a lot of the learning can be done on the screen, sometimes in a lesson where you’ve got all the kids on a screen, sometimes in smaller spaces.

“The whole design of schools will be different in 25 years, it’s not going to suddenly happen, but what Bridget Phillipson has done is light the fuse paper and say that we’re on this journey and we’re going to have to work on it together.

“It’s the biggest thing that any education secretary has had to face up to in 100 years.”

Sir Anthony said AI is “already replacing teachers” and in time will be able to perform all of their functions, particularly in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

Asked if this suggests a move to flexible home and school learning, Sir Anthony replied: “Well, I think it will still happen at school, but schools will necessarily be changing because much more of the heavy lifting of the learning can be done in an individual way.

“A class is a very inefficient way of delivering learning.”

He added: “The two quickest-growing schools in Britain are both home schools, they’re schools that have kids who are being educated at home.

“So there’s a really powerful swing towards learning at home.

“My sense is that schools will still be 9am to 3pm, but that they’ll be different, that what happens will be a different experience, more social, more collective work, more group work.”

However, Sir Anthony warned that schools should ensure that AI does not “dehumanise” pupils by limiting their contact with other young people.

It comes as the Education Secretary said she wants schools to use data to tackle the “absence epidemic” and “get our kids back into school”.

Ms Phillipson announced that every secondary school trust and local authority in the country can now view, download and share a new attendance data summary.

She said: “Ultimately, our absence epidemic signals a crisis of belonging. Far too many children feel that they simply don’t belong in school. So it comes back to that precious relationship between teachers and students.”

The Department for Education (DfE) has said that tech firms, including Google, Microsoft, Adobe and Amazon Web Services, have helped to develop a set of expectations which AI tools should meet to be considered safe for classroom use.

The AI Product Safety Expectations in Education framework sets out safeguards, including enhanced filtering of harmful content.

The DfE also announced that all new teachers will be trained on the effective use of assistive technology to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).

Ms Phillipson said: “The world of even five years ago is gone forever, now we must seize the opportunities of the future.

“We can hope for a brighter future for our children – delivered by a digital revolution in education.

“I will take up this great new technological era to modernise our education system, to back our teachers and to deliver better life chances for our children across the country.”

Sarah Hannafin, of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “While AI has huge potential benefits for schools and children’s learning, it is important that these are harnessed in the right way, and that teachers retain professional oversight of learning.

“Such tools cannot replace the judgment and deep subject knowledge of a human expert.

“It’s vital that teachers and school leaders receive high-quality funded training and the guidance needed to feel confident using AI themselves as well as teaching pupils about how to use AI tools appropriately in their learning and wider lives.

“Teachers are struggling with unsustainable levels of workload, so it makes sense to explore AI’s potential to reduce this, However, it alone will not be enough to address the severe recruitment and retention crisis facing schools, with other measures, including action on pay, fundamental reform of inspection, and more flexible working, all crucial.”

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said the “positives around digital technology are obvious” but that “no screen can replicate the human connection between teachers and students”.

He added that teacher workload is “unacceptably high” and that technology itself “must not be seen as the solution nor a distraction from the urgent talks that are needed to address it”.

Julia Adamson of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT said: “Teachers see the opportunity AI presents to transform their work and the lives of their students, from saving time on lesson plans, to personalising learning for each young person.

“But they need better training and guidance to grow in confidence with AI, to make sure it is used fairly and reduces disadvantage in the education system.”