Latest news with #CampaignforRealEducation
Daily Mail
19-06-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
It's too hot to go to school! Climate change making it harder for pupils to learn, dire assessment says
Climate change is making it harder for pupils to learn as they wilt in the heat, Department for Education research says. An official briefing says learning can be 'very difficult' due to the 'one or two days' per year when indoor temperatures reach 35°C. And even on just averagely warm days, the heat could be causing pupils to currently lose seven days of learning per year, it said. However, critics yesterday said hot days should not mean whole sessions of learning written off as 'lost'. They pointed out children in places such as Africa and India make learning a priority in much more prolonged heated conditions, often without air conditioning. Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: 'Children and teachers need to toughen up a bit and get on with it. 'Millions of pupils around the world place the importance of education above personal comfort. 'Going soft on our kids is no way to build the resilience they need to survive in the modern world.' The document was released today as temperatures soared over 30C in some parts of the country. Staff at the Department are now working on ways to make new school buildings resilient to apocalyptic scenarios caused by climate change. The document said global surface temperature levels are already 1.2°C higher than pre-industrial levels, causing one to two days annually of 'extreme heat'. This tally could rise to three days by 2050 and eight days by 2100, if climate change causes the predicted global temperature rises of 2C and 4C respectively. And it said 'more subtle changes in temperature' on 'generally warmer days' could also 'affect the ability to learn'. Taken together, it means seven days are potentially being lost currently, rising to eight days in 2050 and 12 days in 2100. The document says: 'In the longer term, without the implementation of any adaptation measures, students could potentially lose up to 12 days of learning per year on average, as result of generally warmer temperatures and not just from extreme heat.' The document also warned of the threat of flooding and water shortages to schools, which were also listed as 'climate risks'. It said all new school buildings under Labour will be 'designed to be climate resilient'.
Epoch Times
23-05-2025
- Epoch Times
AI in Schools Would ‘Dehumanise' Classroom Interactions, Education Specialist Warns
An education specialist has warned the use of artificial intelligence in schools would dehumanise classroom interactions and increase children's digital overload. Christopher McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education (CRE), told The Epoch Times that educators tend to embrace technology because they see it as an improvement; however, they have not fully considered the implications of education-enhanced AI. Some of these concerns involve how it would reduce the elements of human interaction that are integral to the learning experience. 'AI dehumanises the traditional classroom interaction between a teacher and the children, but also between the children themselves. That's all taken away,' McGovern said. McGovern, a retired head teacher and former adviser to the policy unit at 10 Downing Street, made the comments in the context of the education sector exploring the ways in which AI can aid pupils in the classroom and teachers with administration. The Ada Lovelace Institute (ALI), a research centre which aims to ensure that technology works for the benefit of society, Related Stories 5/7/2025 4/28/2025 David Game College, a private school in London, Children Could Reject AI Younger generations who have have grown up in a world of technology would reasonably be expected to be the most open to AI taking over the classroom. But according to the ALI, that is not necessarily going to be the case. In its 'The importance of the pupil-teacher relationship matters as much to the pupil as it does to the teacher,' the think tank observed. Similarly, teachers who were invited by the DfE to test a proof-of-concept AI marking tool '[Pupils] want you to read their work. They want you to know and understand who they are as an individual. They want to impress you often. They want to interest you in who they are,' one secondary school teacher said in feedback to the department. Tech Overload McGovern said he does recognise that AI can be used constructively in certain situations and has the capacity to match learning tasks to the individual needs of pupils. However, he said that if schools are going to introduce AI into a classroom, the use of technology needs to be reduced elsewhere. The educator warned that AI would contribute to the 'massive overload' of technology that is already impacting children, not least since smartphones and social media have become such a prominent part of young peoples' lives. 'It's an overdose of AI which is going to be the problem. As we are going further along the path overdosing our children, they become increasingly addicted to their screens,' he said, adding it could be a further detriment to children's mental health. Teachers Already Using AI Despite there being few education-specific AI tools available, teachers are using generic AI products like ChatGPT in administrative tasks. In 2023, 42 percent of teachers in England File photo of a maths exam in progress at Pittville High School, Cheltenham, England, on March 2, 2012. David Davies/PA Wire ALI has pointed out that using generic products comes with its own problems, including generating content that is not age-appropriate or relevant to the curriculum. AI can also 'hallucinate,' producing inaccurate outputs that it presents as facts. The DfE has Schools can also set their own rules on AI use—including whether and how pupils can use it—as long as they follow legal requirements around data protection, child safety, and intellectual property. The DfE is already supporting Concerns Over Cheating Last month, a survey of school support staff who belong to the GMB union Cheating is not a new phenomenon, but educators have said that generative AI has made it much easier for children to do so, particularly in non-supervised assignments like coursework. Education specialist Tom Richmond told The Epoch Times, 'Coursework was already recognised as an unreliable form of assessment well before ChatGPT came along, but it is now abundantly clear that unsupervised assignments cannot be treated as a fair and trustworthy form of assessment.' Richmond, the former director of the EDSK think tank, said that it is not possible to say with certainty how many children are using AI to cheat, as there are no reliable detection tools available to schools and colleges. He added, 'No form of assessment is immune to cheating, but some assessments are much harder to manipulate than others.' 'The most obvious way to reduce cheating is for schools to change the types of tasks and assessments that they set for pupils. Any task and assessment completed at home without supervision is now wide open to cheating, so schools can switch to more in-class assessments to prevent cheating,' he added. File photo of Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, dated Feb. 03, 2025. Lucy North/PA Wire An EDSK report from 2023 £1 Million for EdTech The government has a wider strategy to advance the usage of AI, including in education. On Monday, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson In her speech at the Education World Forum, she confirmed that the department's new Content Store Project will see curriculum guidance, teaching resources, lesson plans, and anonymised pupils' work made available to AI companies to train their tools 'so that they can generate top quality content for use in our classrooms.' However, she emphasised that EdTech 'can't replace great teachers' and that 'AI isn't a magic wand.' She also said the DfE will be working closely with international partners in the development of global AI guidelines for generative AI in education, in order to shape 'the global consensus on how generative AI can be deployed safely and effectively to boost education around the world.' The UK will host an international summit on generative AI in education in 2026.
Daily Mail
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Schools are paying for Labour-backed AI software to set students' homework - but critics fear technology will make teachers 'lazy and incompetent'
Schools across Britain are paying thousands of pounds for AI software which teachers can use to set pupils homework and give them points based on their behaviour, MailOnline can reveal. The government-approved software, called Team Satchel, boasts that it is 'giving teachers their weekends and evenings back'. Its website is littered with high scoring reviews, including three from the same teacher in the space of four months, and claims to be used in a third of secondary schools in Britain. Some secondary schools could be splashing out as much as £27,000 to have the management information system for three years, according to a pricing document. As well as setting homework, staff can give or take points away from students depending on their behaviour where they are placed on a virtual 'leaderboard' for teachers to view. 'The ability to assign both positive and negative points to students, from the front of the class, means recognition is timely and supports positive reinforcements ,' the website reads. But furious campaigners fear it will lead to 'algorithm-based' learning and mark the end of 'inspirational' teaching. The 'AI revolution in the classroom' is being driven by the Labour government which in March committed £45 million of taxpayers' money into beefing up internet connectivity in schools. Chris McGovern, chair of Campaign for Real Education, told MailOnline the software would 'provide employment protection for lazy and incompetent teachers'. 'Reliance on AI may have some administrative advantages but it will mark the end of inspirational teaching,' he said. 'Teaching will become algorithm-based and formulaic. It's going to be "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" and "Hello, Mr Deadly-Dull Robot". 'The growing use of such software by schools points to a desolate, depressing and dehumanised experience of learning for pupils. 'Dangerously, it will feed children's harmful addiction to digital technology at a time when they are suffering from a mental health crisis. Schools need to focus as much on "Mind Change" as they do on " Climate Change". 'According to The Children's Society we already have the unhappiest children in Europe. Schools should be encouraging kids to be less reliant on digital technology not strengthening its grip on them.' Parenting group UsForThem has recently launched its Put The Brakes on EdTech campaign, which calls on secondary schools to suspend the use of pupil-facing technology. Retired headteacher Chris McGovern (pictured), chair of Campaign for Real Education, said the software would 'provide employment protection for lazy and incompetent teachers' Co-founder Molly Kingsley told MailOnline that 'tech such as this might well save teachers time but it's disingenuous to pretend that it is in pupils' bests interests'. She said: 'The core purpose of teaching should be to encourage children to think critically and for themselves, but how can pupils be expected to do this if teachers are actively avoiding doing the same? 'The insertion of tech into the pupil-teacher relationship further erodes the bond between teacher and child and comes at just a moment that children are disengaging from the school system in record numbers. 'In addition, practice indicates that ed tech in general and AI enhanced ed tech in particular presents a whole series of concerns about data and privacy issues which schools are ill equipped to deal with. 'The vast majority of parents would prefer homework to be set by an involved and engaged teacher using nothing more sophisticated than pen and paper.' Team Satchel was founded in 2011 by vegetarian Naimish Gohil, a former assistant headteacher at the then named Henry Compton Boys School in London and software engineer. He told the Tech Talks podcast six years ago he wanted his company to become 'synonymous with education'. 'Our job is to serve the school leaders and decision makers to help schools, because if we can help them and provide them with solutions to help them run schools better then that is naturally going to cascade down to teachers, students, and parents,' he said. James Bore, managing director of cybersecurity consultancy, Bores, has warned schools about using AI in education. He told MailOnline: 'While everyone's very excited about AI, I cannot stress enough how important it is to recognise that most of the AI out there has absolutely no understanding. 'It is, to simplify, a very powerful predictive autocorrect - a language engine. There is no understanding of that language, there is no distinction between truth and fiction. 'AI, LLMs, can be a powerful tool, and can even be useful, but they cannot be relied upon to be accurate and so any use of them to educate must come with safeguards and human fact-checking to avoid hallucinations.' The Department for Education said AI would help teachers focus on face-to-face teaching rather than time spent on 'burdensome marking and admin'. But Britain's 'strictest headteacher' Katharine Birbalsingh has long voiced opposition against it. The head of Michaela Community School in Brent, north London, warned in February it would 'dumb down lessons'. The 52-year-old said: 'Your brain remembers stuff if you write it down, if you read it. 'The reason why our children are so literate and so articulate is because they do loads of reading and writing in the classroom. 'If you're on a screen, you're just not going to learn as much and the business of being on a screen actually dumbs you down, so that is devastating for kids that come from more challenging backgrounds. 'We strongly advise our families not to give them smartphones at all, so obviously smartphones aren't allowed in school, but we actually advise them just not to give them smartphones at all.' Research carried out by the National Literacy Trust found two in five teachers had used generative AI in 2024 to create lesson content. The rise of AI led the GMB union this week to warn ministers that the technology was 'dehumanising' schools. In a letter to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, the union's national officer Stacey Booth warned that its members had 'expressed multiple concerns about the use of genAI'. This included 'cheating and plagiarism, privacy, data security and online safety to the loss of human touch in education'. Ms Booth said: 'In particular, members' concerns about the dehumanisation of certain areas of education remind us that the increase of technology in schools may lead to a devaluing of the tangible aspects of education, like the social and emotional development that schools support, and the workers who do this. 'This work must not be forgotten in the drive to introduce new technologies and genAI into education.'
