Department for Education investing £10m in AI to cut teachers' workloads
AI is to be used to help cut teachers' workloads.
This is part of a plan announced by the DUP education minister Paul Givan today.
It follows recommendations made by an "independent review of teacher workload panel”, commissioned by the minister last year.
The Department of Education said in a statement: “Key elements of the action plan include addressing working hours and flexible working for teachers and a commitment to develop measures in recognition of the increasingly complex role of school leaders.
"This includes a phased rollout of enhanced administrative support, significant investment and practical actions on teacher training in Gen AI aimed at bringing meaningful workload reductions for the teaching profession.”
‘Gen AI’ means generative AI – programs like ChatGPT and Gemini, for example.
The workload report published today says the department will invest over £10m to “support the roll-out of system-aware generative AI tools” and training over two years.
It said: "Gen AI offers substantial potential to reduce workload by automating or streamlining routine, low-value administrative and preparatory tasks.
"International research and emerging practice demonstrate that Gen AI can effectively support activities such as lesson and resource planning, drafting feedback, summarising pupil work, managing documentation and supporting administrative tasks.”
It goes on to cite research showing “significant time savings, with an average reported workload reduction of 11 hours and 52 minutes per week per participant”.