MKAI Response to the Department for Education’s “Generative AI in Education” Reports
MKAI Response to the Department for Education’s “Generative AI in Education” Reports
The Department for Education recently published two reports in August 2024 focusing on the potential uses of Generative AI (GenAI) in education. The first, a technical report, details the development and testing of a proof-of-concept AI tool designed to automate feedback and resource generation for Year 4 literacy work. The second, a user research report, explores educators’ responses to the use of these AI tools, including their perceived benefits and limitations. Written in collaboration with Faculty Ltd and the National Institute of Teaching, these reports aim to inform the government’s approach to AI in education, offering insights into how AI might be used to reduce teacher workloads, improve student outcomes, and ensure alignment with the National Curriculum.
MKAI Response Overview
The recent government reports on Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education present a cautious, incremental approach that risks overlooking the technology’s transformative potential. At MKAI, we have worked closely with FE institutions and educational leaders who recognise AI’s capacity to modernise and enhance education. While the reports provide useful insights into AI’s ability to reduce teacher workloads, offer customisable tools, and automate some tasks, they lack the bold vision required for the UK to lead globally. Without addressing the fundamental challenges and opportunities, these reports risk failing our teachers by not ensuring access to the best and latest technologies, leaving the UK vulnerable to being overtaken by more progressive countries.
Addressing the Key Shortfalls
- Automation Alone Is Not Enough The reports highlight automation as a way to reduce teacher workloads. While this is necessary, it is insufficient as a vision for AI’s role in education. AI’s transformative potential lies not only in the automation of repetitive tasks but in how it can enhance personalised learning, enable iterative feedback loops, and allow teachers to focus on higher-value activities like student engagement and creative pedagogy. Simply reducing administrative burdens misses the point: AI must augment the professional capabilities of teachers, not merely lighten their loads.
- Accessibility, Not Complexity: Simplifying AI Integration for Educators The reports suggest that customisation is crucial for educators to adapt AI tools to their teaching needs, but this overlooks the core issue: the vast majority of teachers are not yet using AI regularly. Our findings indicate that 70-85% of educators have not integrated AI into their workflows to reduce workload or enhance teaching outcomes. The focus should be on accessibility, not expecting teachers to become advanced users or prompt engineers.
Expecting educators to navigate customisation is unrealistic. Instead, the priority must be to develop best-in-class user interfaces (UIs) that make core tasks—such as grading, planning, and providing feedback—simple and intuitive. The Department’s report implies that customisation will empower teachers, but the real empowerment comes from AI tools that are easy to use from the outset, without requiring in-depth technical understanding. A focus on reducing the barriers to entry, rather than overcomplicating the role of AI in education, will do more to ensure adoption and effective use.
- Over-Reliance on AI for Student Assessment Is a Critical Risk The government’s reports propose using AI for student feedback and assessment. This is a dangerous proposition without sufficient caution. AI tools are not infallible and are prone to errors like hallucination and misinterpretation, which could jeopardise the quality of assessments. FE institutions have made it clear that in the view of educators, AI-generated assessments should only be supplementary. Teachers, equipped with context and human judgement, must remain the final arbiters of student progress. The idea of handing over critical assessment functions to AI without robust human oversight is a recipe for educational stagnation.
- The Missed Potential of Holistic Learning AI’s promise goes far beyond the technical automations highlighted in the reports. The Department’s focus on individual, isolated tasks such as grammar correction in Year 4 literacy is myopic. The true value of AI in education is its potential to foster critical thinking, creativity, and interdisciplinary learning. There are benefits in these areas for both students and educators. This broader vision is essential if we are to cultivate a generation capable of navigating complex, interconnected global challenges, in person or online.
- Ignoring the Next Generation of AI Will Leave the UK Behind Perhaps the most significant failure of these reports is their lack of ambition for the future. AI is evolving rapidly, and the tools available in 2025 will likely be far more advanced than what we have today. If we don’t seize the current opportunity to integrate AI into education now, the UK will be unable to harness the next generation of AI tools. This will leave our education sector outdated, with both students and teachers falling behind countries that embrace these technologies more aggressively.
A Consolidated, Sector-Wide Approach to Low-Cost AI Solutions
The future of AI in education requires a consolidated, sector-wide approach that prioritises cost-effective, accessible tools through an API-driven cost model rather than per-teacher licences. Currently, educational institutions are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on AI tools without clear accountability or cost-benefit analysis for their usage—an unsustainable approach. The government must shift its focus to funding AI systems that charge by API calls, ensuring that institutions pay for what they actually use, rather than being locked into costly, inefficient middleware.
AI should target the 20% of activities—such as drafting lesson plans, marking routine assessments, and generating personalised feedback—that consume 80% of teachers’ time in tasks like lesson planning, grading, reporting and student support. By streamlining these specific, time-consuming processes, AI can make a real difference to teachers’ workloads without adding financial or technical burdens.
Expecting colleges or teachers to fund LLM subscriptions, copilot licences, or bloated, expensive user interfaces is both unrealistic and counterproductive. Our findings show that the majority of teachers are not yet using AI tools regularly, and even fewer are paying for AI licences. However, they still need access to the best AI models available. The government should take the lead in providing sector-wide funding for these tools, ensuring that all teachers—regardless of their technical expertise—can easily integrate AI into their working practices and enhance their productivity. By focusing on accessible, intuitive systems that charge by usage rather than licences, we can provide the tools educators need without overburdening them with unnecessary expenses.
Personalisation and Iterative Feedback Are Key
AI offers a unique opportunity to provide highly personalised learning experiences. Unlike traditional methods, AI can give students individualised assignments, ongoing feedback, and tailored support throughout the learning process. FE teachers are asking for these capabilities—tools that empower them to deliver personalised instruction efficiently, without getting bogged down in technical or administrative complexities. Teachers need AI systems that work in the background, enhancing their ability to teach, not replacing their role as educators.
The Department for Education’s approach is too cautious, too focused on incremental change, and not bold enough to meet the challenges and opportunities of the AI revolution in education. The FE sector stands ready to adopt transformative tools that save time, personalise learning, and improve outcomes for students across the UK. However, this will require significant and rapid investment in both infrastructure and teacher training. It also demands a more ambitious vision from our government, combined with a practical approach to AI adoption that draws on the experience and knowledge of empowered teachers and leaders.
Teacher Empowerment Through AI
Rather than automating tasks in a way that sidelines teachers, AI should enhance teachers’ decision-making abilities and provide data-driven insights. AI tools should allow teachers to assess students more effectively, without diminishing their role in the learning process. Upskilling educators to use these tools is a key investment that cannot be ignored. The government’s reports acknowledge the need for training, but they offer no substantial strategy for implementing this on a national scale. Without widespread upskilling initiatives, AI tools will remain underutilised, and their potential will not be fully realised. If it is accessible and applied to the right use cases, AI can also be a key factor in increasing satisfaction and retention.
Ethical and Privacy Concerns
The government’s reports lightly touch on the ethical implications of AI in education, but they do not go nearly far enough in addressing the risks. AI systems used in schools must have robust ethical guardrails, including clear policies around data privacy and bias. Moreover, the reports fail to grapple with the broader social implications of AI in education. We need a comprehensive framework for ensuring that AI is used responsibly and fairly in education, with transparency and accountability at every level of deployment.
Conclusion: Bold and Informed Leadership Is Needed
The Department for Education’s approach is too cautious, too focused on incremental change, and not bold enough to meet the challenges and opportunities of the AI revolution in education. The FE sector stands ready to adopt transformative tools that save time, personalise learning, and improve outcomes for students across the UK. However, this will require significant and speedy investment, both in infrastructure and in teacher training, and a much more ambitious vision from our government.
Without this, we face a stark reality: our educational institutions will be left behind, our students will be ill-equipped for the AI-powered world, and the UK will lose its competitive edge in the global knowledge economy.
We strongly urge the UK Government to rethink its approach to AI in the education sector and begin showing the bold, decisive leadership that is needed.
By Richard Foster-Fletcher, Executive Chair of MKAI
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