“We as educators are facing a lot of challenges because what you find right now is that the students are utilising the technology to do a lot of the work,” reflected President of the National Principals’ Association, Neal Fontentelle. This comes as educators around the world joined in observing UNESCO’s International Day of Education.
Under the theme “AI and education: Preserving human agency in a world of automation”, the 2025 International Day of Education inspires reflections on the power of education to equip individuals and communities to navigate, understand and influence technological advancement.
The NPA President says classrooms and students are quickly evolving and are relying on artificial intelligence in ways never before seen. Instead of closing students off to AI, Fontenelle says the aim is to train students on how to effectively use different technologies to their educational advantage. He notes, however, that the goal is not to decrease students’ own intelligence in favour of artificial intelligence.
“What we are aiming to do now is to train the students in terms of various ways that they can use the AI to their advantage, but not limit the use of their own brainpower,” he explained.
Educators themselves must also be trained in AI-use. Fontelle says teachers must be the buffer between students abusing AI and effective, ethical AI-use.
“We have to be able to detect now when a student has actually substituted their own thinking for AI. So, it means that the teachers now have to be more educated with AI technology so that they can detect when it is being used and when it’s being used in a manner that would prevent the student from actually using their own brain power.”
The NPA President adds that teachers can improve their AI skills by planning their lessons using the software: “What they can do is design a lesson plan with the use of AI. Now, when AI designs a lesson plan for you, all you do now is you tweak that lesson plan to suit the exact purpose that you want to utilise it for.”
Roughly 86% of college students say they use AI in their studies, a new global survey of college students by the Digital Education Council suggests. Among them, 54% say they use it weekly. Another 24% rely on it daily.
