Using artificial intelligence (AI) for marking and lesson planning will give teachers more time with students, according to the UK’s education secretary, Bridget Phillipson.
Labelling the combination of technology and education a “hugely exciting relationship”, she told the Bett Show the current government plans to use AI to save teachers time, to ensure children get the best education possible, and to grow the connection between students and teachers. “I will take up this great new technological era to modernise our education system, to back our teachers and to deliver for our children across the country,” said Phillipson.
The developments come in light of the government’s plan for change – which outlined the goal of ensuring that by 2028, 75% of five-year-olds will be of a good developmental level when they start school – as well as its AI opportunities action plan, in which the government outlined its plan to use AI to “revolutionise” public services.
Technology has always been a part of the government’s plans for the future, and with a large number of companies and individuals already using technologies such as generative AI (GenAI) in their daily lives, it’s important the government gets its application in the public sector right.
Phillipson claimed two-thirds of those using GenAI in education say it’s having a positive impact, and though she acknowledged tech adoption will pose a challenge as well as a benefit, she pointed out there is no choice but to adapt and change. “The world of even five years ago is gone forever – already a lost, obsolete age,” she said.
A fund of £1m has been issued to 16 developers to implement technology to help teachers with marking and personalised student feedback, which alongside the department for education’s existing Oak National Academy’s lesson-planning tool will help reduce teacher workload.
She claimed the goal is to use AI to “reduce work or help unlock the recruitment and retention crisis that we face, so that once again teaching can be a profession that sparks joy, not burnout”.
Understanding implementation
In the interest of helping schools invest in the right technology, the department has also appointed the Chartered College of Teaching leader of developing the Edtech Evidence Board to assess what tech is already working for schools, and the recently launched Plan Technology for Your School service is designed to help schools understand what technology to buy and how to implement it.
For children with special educational needs, Phillipson said edtech can be “fundamental” for learning, and announced that sessions for the use of assistive technology in classrooms will become a mandatory part of teacher training in 2025.
“Leaders have told us that the effective use of this type of technology can have a huge impact not just on academic results, but on children’s confidence in the classroom team,” she said.
In many cases, a lack of inclusive culture in the technology sector prevents those from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds from choosing these careers, and according to data collected about student absences, school is no different.
Secondary schools now have access to data on student absences through the View Your Education data tool to help them understand how to tackle days missed, with Phillipson claiming some children don’t attend because of a “crisis of belonging”. Her hope is more children will start to feel they “belong” in school, which will in turn increase attendance.
The initiatives Phillipson highlighted, both present and future, are designed to allow teachers more time with students, and to grow the “bond” between teacher and pupil.
“It goes right back to our earliest days as humans,” she said. “Everything in education that has come since, everything that’s delivered to the children it is sought to support, that deeply special relationship between the teacher and the taught.
“[Teachers] shape values, they build belonging, and that’s why edtech is so exciting and so powerful,” said Phillipson. “Because it will help deliver a new era of learning and revitalise that bond between teacher and pupil.”
But there is industry concern that teachers will need extended help and education to effectively use these tools – with BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, citing its own research whereby 19% of teachers have no interest in using AI now or in the future.
Julia Adamson, managing director for Education and Public Benefit at BCS, 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.”
