Within days of ChatGPT being released, teachers and parents were asking whether pupils would simply use it to write their homework. Some school systems and universities began discussing restrictions. Others saw an opening to rethink how learning is assessed.
The real risks
- Copied work. A pupil can paste a question in and hand in the answer without learning anything.
- Mistakes. The tool sometimes invents facts, references or calculations.
- Over-reliance. If a machine does all the thinking, the pupil's own skills do not grow.
The real opportunities
- A patient explainer. A pupil can ask for a concept to be explained in simpler words, again and again.
- Help for teachers. Drafting lesson plans, quiz questions and parent letters takes less time.
- A reason to teach critical thinking. Checking an AI answer against a trusted source is a useful skill.
A sensible plan for a school
- Agree a clear, written policy on when AI tools may be used and how to say so.
- Give more in-class work, oral questions and explanations in the pupil's own words.
- Teach pupils how these tools work and where they fail.
- Train teachers first, so they are not learning in front of the class.
AI will not replace good teaching, but a teacher who understands it will teach better than one who does not.