Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Teachers?

It was a warm Wednesday afternoon; the classroom had started to buzz with a murmur of high school kids chatting as I got up from my chair and approached my Urdu teacher, whose tall frame stood hunched over the podium. He carefully reviewed my dictation lesson that my mother had begun the previous night, underlined the words I had gotten wrong and asked me to write five times each. During my 12 years of public schooling, this was the only time a teacher could give me individual attention. The only reason it had been possible was that instead of the usual 40 to 50 students that populated the classes, ours that year only had 27. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will give teachers and students more of the most valuable commodity: time.

Technology has revolutionised our lives. It is now playing a central role in every aspect of human life. The rapidly evolving technological landscape has transformed the education system just the same. Deep interaction between AI and education is evolving at a greater speed. As current chatbots are trained with such vast knowledge that they are virtually all-knowing, the question must be asked: Will AI replace teachers?

Most educational institutes still follow the system of education which gained popularity during the Industrial Revolution. The teachers prepare a curriculum, lectures, and exercises. The students are trained, and their knowledge and understanding are tested using examinations and assessments. There are two reasons why this system can fall short. Firstly, every person is different, and every student has a different level of comprehension. A teacher cannot engage each student according to his or her mental makeup. This difficulty is significant in underdeveloped and developing countries like Pakistan, where the curriculum’s density and the classroom size make tailored guidance impossible. Secondly, the education system that worked during the Industrial Revolution works less effectively in an age where creativity is as important as literacy. Students will no longer be working in a well-planned industry but rather in a world that sees a change in landscape every half a decade.

There are many aspects of education where AI can integrate quite harmoniously. AI can be used in administrative tasks like planning, assessment, and giving homework assignments, etc. This will free teachers to focus on the other needs of the students. It can tailor lessons to match the pace and style of the individual learners. Adaptive teaching will benefit students who struggle in traditional classroom settings. However, AI lacks emotional intelligence, empathy, and meaningful student interaction. A personalised AI tutor can potentially be assigned to every student. The teacher’s role will shift, allowing for more human and personalised student interaction, even in larger classrooms. This would allow us to cater to the shortage of teachers, benefitting countries like Pakistan. Our low teacher-to-student ratio

is a formidable challenge to improving educational outcomes. AI’s facilitation in administrative tasks would allow teachers to engage students in meaningful activities.

Another way AI can help teachers is by assessing students’ results and identifying learning trends. This will let teachers better mentor students for the needed outcomes. The assessment process can be expedited, reducing the time taken to provide student feedback. AI will also help teachers identify the strengths and weaknesses of each student and then guide them accordingly. At the same time, the teachers will be able to make changes in their teaching methods to help students enhance their learning.

In the future, AI and teachers will most likely work together to create a better educational environment. Teachers will act as facilitators, and AI systems will support managing other tasks, like understanding students’ psychological needs. Teachers can adapt their teaching styles to meet students’ needs and manage classroom environments. Thus, the human element cannot be replaced with machines as easily as some of us might think.

Students worldwide are already benefiting enormously from using AI as a learning tool. They can use it to learn at their own pace, and they don’t have to be nervous about asking the same question multiple times and asking for varying explanations and examples. They can explore a subject much deeper and go off on a tangent that interests them, which they are unlikely to do in a classroom where the teacher has limited time to go through a planned lesson. With AI tools specialised in education, self-study can be accelerated.

An important consideration is training teachers and students to adapt to AI tools. AI, in its current state, is still at the cutting edge of technology, and most of our teachers have no experience in leveraging it appropriately. To start, teachers and students must develop a good understanding of AI, such as how it works, its utility, its shortcomings, how it can be used in education, and its ethical considerations. We need to organise training workshops, both in-person and online. Schools and colleges should facilitate teachers for professional development. Ideally, comprehensive training programs should be developed from the bottom up to develop a framework and educate teachers on how AI can be used in lesson planning and ethics. Students should also be taught what AI is and how tutoring apps and writing assistants developed with AI at its core would aid their learning. They should be coached about the ethical considerations related to AI as well.

Institutional support is essential to helping teachers and students understand and use AI tools. High-speed internet should be available at academic institutions, especially in remote areas. Most importantly, education policymakers, the Higher Education Commission, and the Board of Secondary Education should facilitate the integration of AI in classrooms for easy access to teachers and students. This will help teachers and students acquire the required skills for enhanced educational outcomes.

In its current state, AI is unlikely to fully replace teachers as it cannot replace human elements like empathy, mentorship, and personal interaction. These are vital for effective teaching and learning. We cannot replace teachers or books because, as beginners, we

sometimes don’t know what we don’t know. As a result, we don’t even know what questions to ask. However, AI is an excellent tool for assisting teachers. It will help teachers with administrative tasks, grading, and more personal and profound student interactions. It will also let us catch up with the changing world quicker than traditional curriculum design.

Raheel Yawar is a Software Engineer and is working in USA

Brigadier Mohammad Yasin (Retired) is Senior Advisor Emeritus at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad, Pakistan.