Now, with a diverse set of specialised open-source AI platforms, content generation is increasingly becoming effortless, no matter the medium: text, image, or video. Hence, undoubtedly, the advent of Gen AI has changed the educational landscape.

Today, AI can be used for a key task teachers previously performed: interpreting complex educational content based on the needs of the student(s). AI can perform tasks faster, grade with better efficiency and consolidate information for students at ease.

But does this mean that teachers are no longer relevant? Well, nothing could be further from the truth!

So, what is pedagogy all about?

Teachers have always striven to achieve far more than disseminating information. From a typical lecture, no matter how well-delivered and how diligently the learner has taken notes, retaining all the information shared is easier said than done. The same is true about AI-generated content.

Over the years, the real difference teachers have made and continue to make is through the insights they share.

Decoding insights: The value teachers offer

Sharing insights that resonate with students oftentimes come from real experience and learning.

Teachers help build on the foundation of information and concepts learners are already familiar with, thereby ensuring assimilation of new lessons. This process is as time-consuming as it is labour-intensive, particularly when it comes to customising teaching to the learning style of every student in class.

Thanks to the human touch, teachers can often instinctively, therefore, more efficiently gauge a learner’s command of a discipline than AI models.

Teachers also play the vital role of imparting skills, which have never been more important than they are today: fact-checking and critical thinking. LLMs powering AI platforms extract information without discerning it, or worse, imagine non-existent information. Here, fact-checking and critical thinking skills become game-changing.

On a different note, it is important to ask: Is subject proficiency the only takeaway from an educational institution?

Education beyond curriculum

Looking back at the golden years we spent in educational institutions, most of us are more likely to remember the life lessons and the warmth we received before recollecting what the syllabus consisted of.

Civic education, emotional growth, and learning how to navigate social situations are as integral to comprehensive education as skills in core subjects. Here, teachers have a definitive edge over AI because soft skills such as empathy can’t be programmed. Teachers are often role models of learners; thus, the respectful, ethical living they are expected to inculcate through leading by example can’t be done by Generative AI.

At the same time, for optimal learning, the emotional support or warmth that students need can’t be replaced by AI-generated responses.

The younger the learners, the more emotionally vulnerable and impressionable they are. In fact, there is no substitute for a healthy exchange and expression of emotions during formative years, i.e., the emotional growth young students must undergo at a given age, can’t be organically fulfilled later in life or achieved in isolation, thereby making the human touch teachers and peers bring to the table vital.

The road ahead

Where Generative AI can be transformative is in helping teachers swiftly fine-tune lectures based on the diverse learning styles in a class. AI can also fast-track repetitive tasks, such as setting basic question sheets, flashcards, and creating illustrations aiding the visualisation of core concepts.

Moreover, sharing insights previously meant a trade-off between information and analysis during precious class hours. Now using AI, students can come prepared for constructive discussions in class and gain proficiency in the subject faster than they ever could.

In other words, instead of replacing teachers, AI is set to ease their efforts. While AI can ease teaching and support the faculty it can never replace the teacher. The role of education is not just teaching, it’s raising the future contributors to society.

(The author is Director at The Vivekalaya Group of Institutions)