BLOG CONTEST WINNER: The Future of School Education in the Age of AI

Before we start talking about the topic, I would like to state a few facts- AI is here to stay so let’s try to make it our friend.

It will permeate into all areas of our life so it will definitely be a part of the education system even though we are trying to keep it out of our schools & colleges. It is a losing battle and the sooner we accept it the better it will be for us. This begs the question will AI replace the teachers? My answer to it is that it can & might but I don’t think it is completely possible or even correct to replace teachers with AI. It lacks emotions and how to handle them in children. Kids react to any situation in different manners, and they will always need human interaction for dealing with it, but this I believe is a question for the ethics committee of the world to decide. The reason why I started with these points & question is to firmly state where I as an individual stand on the question of AI in schools.

Now coming back to the topic; AI is going to be a big part of the future in school education. The teachers today and in the future have been given an excellent tool and how well they use it will determine their future in the education community. The schools are here to stay as the children need the guidance & boundaries set up by the schools and so are the teachers but their role will change in the future. They will now become mentors, helping students in their educational journey. This change in fact has begun, with teachers now being facilitators.

AI can replace school education but the big question here is, should it?

Definitely not. AI should be used as a tool both by the students as well as teachers. Even the parents can use it to assess how best they can help their children. It should only be used as a tool & not take over the entire education of the children.

The UN department of Economic and Social Affairs has given us 17 goals for sustainable development the fourth of which is Quality Education. According to UN- It is a commitment to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” This goal is a pivotal driver for positive change emphasizing the transformative power of education in fostering a sustainable and equitable world. AI will be a great tool for achieving this goal that UN has set for us. This will especially be helpful for children for whom educational institutions are not reachable. The children living in remote areas where they are mostly home schooled due to various constrains. So, AI can be an extension of the schools and benefit the students. But the curriculum for it also needs to be designed in such a manner as to benefit the students.

Another way AI can be useful in school education is to help children with special needs. It can generate need-based curriculum for them, which the special educators can take up to help these children.

While I can go on about how AI can be helpful in the school education, I feel the need to also tell you the pitfalls of using it. The biggest of it is the dependency on technology. We are making our children, the future generations completely dependent on it. Let me share a meme I saw in the newspaper a while back in which a child is trying to turn the pages of a book with a remote and is failing at it and getting frustrated by it and commenting to his mother about how he is supposed to read if he can’t turn the pages of the book. What we are creating is a generation of future individuals who are completely dependent on technology. This is where schools will play an important role in the future. They will be the institutions that will maintain a balance between the dependance of children on technology and being self-dependent at the same time. The need for this skill will be what will ensure the continuation and growth of schools in the future.

Taking this forward, we are seeing an increase in the number of health issues due to excessive use of technology. The schools will also play an important role in making sure that children are able to achieve the required digital detox on a regular basis and ensuring that they do enough activities away from the screen and technology thus again maintaining the required balance for the students.

We are grappling with the challenges of using AI. How well we can incorporate it into our education system while maintaining a balance between technology and human interaction is what will determine the relevance of schools as well as teachers in the future.

Let us master AI before it masters us.