Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the level of use by teachers of generative artificial intelligence to support lesson-planning and resource-creation or tailoring.

The department launched a call for evidence on generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education, which sought views and experiences from practitioners, the Edtech sector and AI experts on the use of generative AI in education, including to support lesson planning and resource creation. The department published a report on the views of educators and experts on generative AI, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/generative-ai-in-education-educator-and-expert-views.

The department commissioned a ‘use cases for generative AI’ or ‘Hackathons’ project, working with Faculty Science Ltd in partnership with the National Institute of Teaching to assess possible uses for generative AI in education.

Following on from this, the department is now piloting an Edtech evidence board to bring together a group of experts to assess and evaluate the impact of Edtech tools, including generative AI tools, on teaching and learning against set criteria. This could then be shared with the sector to support and inform their technology choices.

In addition, the department provided £2 million funding to support Oak National Academy to develop AI tools for teachers. Oak has launched an AI lesson assistant, Aila, that can help teachers plan lessons.

The department is also funding Ofsted to gather insights from early-adopter schools and further education colleges on the use of AI and the role leaders are playing. The aim of this research is to provide an up-to-date assessment of what emerging practice is developing.