01-05-2025
EXCLUSIVE Schools are paying for Labour-backed AI software to set students' homework - but critics fear technology will make teachers 'lazy and incompetent'
Schools across Britain are paying thousands of pounds for AI software which teachers can use to set pupils homework and give them points based on their behaviour, MailOnline can reveal.
The government-approved software, called Team Satchel, boasts that it is 'giving teachers their weekends and evenings back'.
Its website is littered with high scoring reviews, including three from the same teacher in the space of four months, and claims to be used in a third of secondary schools in Britain.
Some secondary schools could be splashing out as much as £27,000 to have the management information system for three years, according to a pricing document.
As well as setting homework, staff can give or take points away from students depending on their behaviour where they are placed on a virtual 'leaderboard' for teachers to view.
'The ability to assign both positive and negative points to students, from the front of the class, means recognition is timely and supports positive reinforcements ,' the website reads.
But furious campaigners fear it will lead to 'algorithm-based' learning and mark the end of 'inspirational' teaching.
The 'AI revolution in the classroom' is being driven by the Labour government which in March committed £45 million of taxpayers' money into beefing up internet connectivity in schools.
Chris McGovern, chair of Campaign for Real Education, told MailOnline the software would 'provide employment protection for lazy and incompetent teachers'.
'Reliance on AI may have some administrative advantages but it will mark the end of inspirational teaching,' he said.
'Teaching will become algorithm-based and formulaic. It's going to be "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" and "Hello, Mr Deadly-Dull Robot".
'The growing use of such software by schools points to a desolate, depressing and dehumanised experience of learning for pupils.
'Dangerously, it will feed children's harmful addiction to digital technology at a time when they are suffering from a mental health crisis. Schools need to focus as much on "Mind Change" as they do on " Climate Change".
'According to The Children's Society we already have the unhappiest children in Europe. Schools should be encouraging kids to be less reliant on digital technology not strengthening its grip on them.'
Parenting group UsForThem has recently launched its Put The Brakes on EdTech campaign, which calls on secondary schools to suspend the use of pupil-facing technology.
Retired headteacher Chris McGovern (pictured), chair of Campaign for Real Education, said the software would 'provide employment protection for lazy and incompetent teachers'
Co-founder Molly Kingsley told MailOnline that 'tech such as this might well save teachers time but it's disingenuous to pretend that it is in pupils' bests interests'.
She said: 'The core purpose of teaching should be to encourage children to think critically and for themselves, but how can pupils be expected to do this if teachers are actively avoiding doing the same?
'The insertion of tech into the pupil-teacher relationship further erodes the bond between teacher and child and comes at just a moment that children are disengaging from the school system in record numbers.
'In addition, practice indicates that ed tech in general and AI enhanced ed tech in particular presents a whole series of concerns about data and privacy issues which schools are ill equipped to deal with.
'The vast majority of parents would prefer homework to be set by an involved and engaged teacher using nothing more sophisticated than pen and paper.'
Team Satchel was founded in 2011 by vegetarian Naimish Gohil, a former assistant headteacher at the then named Henry Compton Boys School in London and software engineer.
He told the Tech Talks podcast six years ago he wanted his company to become 'synonymous with education'.
'Our job is to serve the school leaders and decision makers to help schools, because if we can help them and provide them with solutions to help them run schools better then that is naturally going to cascade down to teachers, students, and parents,' he said.
James Bore, managing director of cybersecurity consultancy, Bores, has warned schools about using AI in education.
He told MailOnline: 'While everyone's very excited about AI, I cannot stress enough how important it is to recognise that most of the AI out there has absolutely no understanding.
'It is, to simplify, a very powerful predictive autocorrect - a language engine. There is no understanding of that language, there is no distinction between truth and fiction.
'AI, LLMs, can be a powerful tool, and can even be useful, but they cannot be relied upon to be accurate and so any use of them to educate must come with safeguards and human fact-checking to avoid hallucinations.'
The Department for Education said AI would help teachers focus on face-to-face teaching rather than time spent on 'burdensome marking and admin'.
But Britain's 'strictest headteacher' Katharine Birbalsingh has long voiced opposition against it.
The head of Michaela Community School in Brent, north London, warned in February it would 'dumb down lessons'.
The 52-year-old said: 'Your brain remembers stuff if you write it down, if you read it.
'The reason why our children are so literate and so articulate is because they do loads of reading and writing in the classroom.
'If you're on a screen, you're just not going to learn as much and the business of being on a screen actually dumbs you down, so that is devastating for kids that come from more challenging backgrounds.
'We strongly advise our families not to give them smartphones at all, so obviously smartphones aren't allowed in school, but we actually advise them just not to give them smartphones at all.'
Research carried out by the National Literacy Trust found two in five teachers had used generative AI in 2024 to create lesson content.
The rise of AI led the GMB union this week to warn ministers that the technology was 'dehumanising' schools.
In a letter to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, the union's national officer Stacey Booth warned that its members had 'expressed multiple concerns about the use of genAI'.
This included 'cheating and plagiarism, privacy, data security and online safety to the loss of human touch in education'.
Ms Booth said: 'In particular, members' concerns about the dehumanisation of certain areas of education remind us that the increase of technology in schools may lead to a devaluing of the tangible aspects of education, like the social and emotional development that schools support, and the workers who do this.
'This work must not be forgotten in the drive to introduce new technologies and genAI into education.'
