The government is investing £23 million in a four-year pilot to trial artificial intelligence and edtech tools in schools, the education secretary has announced.
Opening the BETT UK conference, Bridget Phillipson said the scheme will “put the latest tech and AI tools through their paces in the cut and thrust of classrooms across the country”.
It is an expansion of a previous nine-month pilot in which schools and colleges trialled “innovative” edtech tools. It is not clear how many schools took part.
More than 1,000 schools and colleges will be involved in the new project, which will begin in September, the Department for Education confirmed.
A DfE spokesperson said it “will recruit schools and colleges to put the latest edtech to the test in classrooms, analysing their impact on pupil outcomes, including those with SEND, and on teacher workload”.
Edtech pilot will track impact on staff and pupils
Phillipson told the BETT conference: “We’re investing an additional £23 million to expand our edtech testbed pilot into a four-year programme.
“It recruits schools and colleges to put the latest tech and AI tools through their paces in the cut and thrust of classrooms across the country.
“We’ll track how these tools perform the difference they make for teachers and, above all, the difference they can make for children.”
She said the pilot will gather “genuine evidence about what’s working, the cream of education tech and AI rising to the top so that we can spread that transformative potential far and wide”.
The DfE said it has already had more than 280 expressions of interest from the edtech sector, from those wanting to be involved in the scheme.
The announcement comes days after the DfE launched new standards for AI tools used in schools, to help protect pupils’ mental health and cognitive development.
‘New skills pathways’ announced
Phillipson also announced today the government will deliver “new skills pathways for…teachers and support staff” to help them “build digital data and tech skills”.
These will not be new qualifications, but will instead be incorporated into existing qualifications and training programmes, she said.
Phillipson said she is “so excited about AI”, which she said offers “the chance to make the education system work better for every single learner”.
But she stressed the importance of “human connection”, adding: “There is nothing to match a great teacher at the top of their game.”
“We need to take what’s great about the people in education and combine it with the incredible power of AI.”
