AI in education: the time for national leadership is now

AiEd responds to Sir Anthony Seldon’s call, published in The Times on Monday 21^st September ‘AI is the biggest challenge facing young people’s mental health’, for urgent action on artificial intelligence in education.

Sir Anthony Seldon’s article in Monday’s newspaper makes an important intervention at an important moment. His central argument is one that AI in Education (AiEd) strongly supports: the pace of change in AI has outstripped the pace of our collective response, and young people cannot afford for education to remain on the sidelines.

We do not need to agree with every proposed mechanism or every criticism of the education system to recognise the urgency of his message. AI is already changing how pupils learn, how teachers work and how knowledge is accessed. The question is no longer whether AI will affect education. It is whether we will shape that change deliberately, safely and fairly, or allow it to happen around us.

A national response, not thousands of separate experiments

Across the country, schools and colleges are doing thoughtful, imaginative work with AI. Teachers are exploring how it can reduce workload, strengthen planning, improve accessibility and help them respond to learners’ different needs. Leaders are grappling with safeguarding, assessment, data protection and the implications for their curriculum. But too much of this work still depends on the confidence, capacity and resources of individual institutions. A school should not need an unusually enthusiastic headteacher or a technically confident member of staff to begin developing a responsible approach to AI. Nor should every school have to solve the same questions about policy, training and safe use from scratch.

Sir Anthony is right to call for leadership at national level. Schools need a coherent direction, practical guidance and sustained professional development. Above all, they need a response that matches the scale of the change. National leadership should make responsible AI use possible for every school, not merely celebrate those already leading the way.

The greatest risk is an unequal future

There is a further reason why delay matters. If access to high-quality AI, knowledgeable adults and effective training depends on a family’s resources or a school’s capacity, AI could widen the very inequalities that education exists to overcome.

Some young people will learn to question AI, test its answers and use it to deepen their understanding. Others may encounter it primarily as an apparently authoritative source of instant answers. Some teachers will receive excellent professional development; others will be left to work things out alone. That is not an acceptable basis on which to prepare a generation for its future.

We believe AI literacy should become an entitlement for every pupil, and that every teacher and member of school staff should have access to the training needed to support it. This must include the opportunities AI presents, but also its limitations, its risks and the judgement required to use it well. The aim is not equal access to a particular product. It is equitable access to the knowledge, skills and support that enable young people to thrive in an AI-rich world.

Education-led, not technology-driven

One of the most important themes in Sir Anthony’s article is his call to make schools more “human-rich”. We agree that AI should prompt a serious conversation about what education is for. As technology becomes more capable of generating explanations, answers and content, the value of curiosity, creativity, relationships, character and independent thought becomes more apparent, not less.

However, we should resist the idea that knowledge and human flourishing are competing priorities. Young people need secure knowledge to question what AI tells them. They need intellectual rigour to recognise a plausible but incorrect answer. They need teachers who know when technology can help and when learning requires discussion, effort, uncertainty and human connection. The objective is not more AI in classrooms. It is better education in a world transformed by AI.

That is why AiEd’s approach is education-led, not technology-driven. We start with the educational purpose and ask whether AI can serve it. Sometimes it can make a significant difference. Sometimes the right decision is not to use it. Schools need the confidence to make both decisions.

Preparedness must become the expectation

Sir Anthony calls for every school to have an AI strategy and for staff development to be taken seriously. These are essential ambitions. An effective strategy, however, must be more than a document approved by governors. It should shape how a school approaches safeguarding, professional learning, curriculum, assessment, inclusion and the selection of tools. It should help staff understand what responsible practice looks like in their own roles. t must also evolve. A one-off training session or policy written this year will not be sufficient for the years ahead.

This is the thinking behind the AiEd Certified Framework: a structured approach that helps schools and colleges develop AI literacy, policies and ethics, tools and systems, digital pedagogy, and collaboration. It is designed to support professional judgement and institutional development rather than prescribe a single model of adoption. Through our work with schools, colleges and partners, we see both the appetite for support and the value of giving institutions a clear route from initial understanding to confident, responsible practice.

The moment calls for collaboration

Government has an indispensable role, but it cannot, and need not, do everything itself. Schools, trusts, colleges, researchers, charities and responsible technology partners have already developed expertise, resources and approaches from which the whole system can learn. A national response should draw that work together, evaluate it and make it accessible.

We welcome Sir Anthony’s recognition of the contribution that organisations beyond government can make. AiEd stands ready to play its part, alongside others, in building a response that is ambitious about educational opportunity and uncompromising about safety and public benefit.

The opportunity is considerable. So is the responsibility. We should not ask young people to wait until the adults have finished debating whether AI belongs in education. It is already part of their world. Our task is to ensure they are equipped to use it wisely, and that every school has the support to help them do so.

Sir Anthony’s article is a timely call to action. Now we need the national leadership, collaboration and sustained investment to turn urgency into lasting educational benefit.

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