Just before the start of the 2024/5 school year, the UK government announced plans to develop a ‘content bank’ of official assessments, curriculum guidance and teaching materials for EdTech firms to use when developing and training AI models

The £3million scheme was justified by the UK education minister Stephen Morgan as supporting the development of classroom AI tools to produce “accurate, high-quality content” for teachers which is specifically aligned with the English school system.

The UK government also announced a £1million competition for tech developers to develop an AI tool for supporting teachers in marking and feedback.

Heralding these moves as “a huge step forward for AI in the classroom”, the Minister stated:

“Artificial intelligence, when made safe and reliable, represents an exciting opportunity to give our school leaders and teachers a helping hand with classroom life. This investment will allow us to safely harness the power of tech to make it work for our hard-working teachers, easing the pressures and workload burdens we know are facing the profession and freeing up time, allowing them to focus on face-to-face teaching.”