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Topic for July 2025 - Transforming Education for the AI World
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This month's discussion is:
Transforming Education for the AI World – An Opportunity
The future for our children and grandchildren will be very different in an AI world. Our education system needs to prepare them and give them adaptability and resilience for such a life, as well as supporting them throughout life. At the same time AI and today’s communication tools give us the means to transform the way we deliver education.
We hope to input a short paper to Government as a result of these discussions, to encourage development of a coherent leading National AI Education Strategy.
Agenda
- What is the purpose of education in an AI world? Has it changed? Is it more important or less important? What sort of life are we preparing for?
- Is the distinction between primary, secondary and tertiary education still meaningful? What should children be taught at school? What should tertiary education consist of? What should lifelong education consist of? What about the opportunity for 0-3 year olds at home and nursery age children?
- What does it mean to be 'employable' or 'intelligent' in the AI age? Are we still prioritising the right skills – critical thinking, creativity, ethical reasoning, collaboration, emotional intelligence – or has the curriculum fallen behind? Will AI render traditional knowledge-based curricula and exams obsolete, and if so, what should replace them? Do we need places of learning any more?
- Should education embrace AI – both students and teachers/mentors? Are there parallels to embracing former changes in technology? How should we be taught at each stage of life? Is the current lack of understanding of AI a problem? Should we teach the ethics of AI?
- How do we cater for a rapidly changing and increasingly uncertain world? Can education keep up? How will the changing world of work change education and training?
- Can we solve some root cause problems through enhanced lifelong education? Can we reduce health, social problems and inequalities through it?
Notes
Included below is a copy of the current content related to education in our flagship document A Manifesto for Society in the AI Future. This forms a backdrop to our discussions and we need to see this as a base position to be endorsed or updated.
Underpinning ‘Education for Life’ with Technology
Our education system needs to be updated for the 21st century but in an AI society it needs to become much more of a central pillar throughout our lives.
AI will enable us to transform the way we learn and are supported in our lives, by offering cradle to grave engaging personalised education, training and life assistance in a style appropriate to the individual. The role of teachers will likely change from giving basic education to putting more focus on mentoring and orchestration of discussion, social interaction and the socialisation process, shared values and norms and development of empathy and other life skills. AI can also link us to education opportunities that suit our profile and are likely to lead to fulfilling work and activities.
As well as in education settings we can have education and life guidance on tap throughout life from our own personal AI agents, giving us instantaneous answers to anything that occurs to us and expanding our minds.
We can also Improve our critical thinking and intellectual skills by learning from AI each time we use AI to augment our own thinking and decision-making, as long as we require AI to explain its thinking and reasoning to us. In this way we can continuously develop our brains to their full potential.
The following specific strategies are proposed:
Prioritise and Re-model our approach to education. Recognise that root and branch changes are possible and necessary to realise the potential benefits above.
Re-think the role of teachers to be more mentors, enablers and workshop facilitators rather than deliverers, while being augmented by basic curriculum delivery through engaging digital technologies and AI personalisation. This material will also continuously educate teachers.
Re-design and maintain agile curricula for the AI era in line with the rapid pace of life change envisaged and the evolving nature of work. The ability to change and roll out quickly in a planned way will be crucial.
Provide an enhanced ‘Success in Life’ curriculum to prepare children for life. We need a constantly updated online central curriculum supported by teacher mentoring based on specific objectives to prepare children for life. The aim is to ensure they are equipped to survive, have an enjoyable and fulfilling life and to achieve their full potential, for the benefit of themselves and society in the 21st century. This must include education on and familiarity with AI, including existing AI tools, AI’s opportunities and how to avoid its potential harms as they evolve.
Update our education system to prepare the young for constant need for change and re-skilling so they understand how to manage change and are skilled at re-learning and re-training, especially online. All the proposed initiatives in our paper on Educating for Success in Life are highly relevant in an AI Society.
Transform Education with communication technologies, led by BBC and Open University (OU). Technology today including video, interactive learning and virtual reality combined with AI, can give pupils a far richer and engaging learning experience, at their own pace and personalised to them. BBC and OU should be given a role in developing a national online education curriculum with teachers mentoring, facilitating group discussion and addressing problems, rather than doing basic syllabus delivery.
Make education access throughout life the norm to support future re-skilling needs This Manifesto suggests that there should be multiple paths into the world of work which are seen as equally attractive but are based on people’s interest and aptitude for different things. However, they should also be able to return to the world of education or re-training, part-time or full-time, at any stage of their life. This would be enabled largely by the technological approach outlined above and a lifelong ‘Education quota’ for assistance and mentoring.
Prioritise STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Subjects. We need to continually enhance teaching to enthuse students about their exciting potential and the type of career paths available. University Grants should be given for skills shortage subjects. Note that STEM is the current focus, but potentially other subject shortages may require prioritisation in the future.
Develop a National Careers Online Guidance Service. To be developed by employer organisations and BBC in partnership, using video, virtual reality and similar techniques to provide proper understanding of work roles, levels of availability, potential rewards and alternative entry paths, in an engaging way. This should link with the body responsible for ‘creation of new jobs and managing unemployment’ referred to in the Accelerating Innovation section.
Develop a Work preparation and job service run by employer organisations in the 6 months before entering the world of work. It should be available at several points to reflect varying paths into work.
Address the Gap in Education from Years 0-3. Children of this age should not necessarily be in nursery as in some countries, but we should equip parents or child minders to be better educators and consider use of ‘AI robotic friends’ to assist and speed their development.
Develop a national AI education programme for the public. There is a danger of antagonism to AI because of lack of understanding, even amongst people who purport to know what they are talking about. This needs addressing early on, perhaps by AI itself being used to offer a basic introduction supported by AI question and answer sessions.
Underlying analysis document: Educating for Success in Life, AI - The Societal Implications