Sir Anthony Seldon (pictured) says he believes teachers will become no more than helpers in the classroom, which will be run by robots
The teachers who inspire our children will soon be machines and not humans, according to a leading university vice chancellor.
Within 10 years a technological revolution will sweep aside old notions of education and change the world forever, Sir Anthony Seldon says.
The vice chancellor of the University of Buckingham believes school teachers will lose their traditional role and effectively one day be little more than classroom assistants.
He says they will remain on hand to set up equipment, help children when necessary and maintain discipline.
But the essential job of instilling knowledge into young minds will be completely done by artificially intelligent (AI) computers.
Sir Seldon, a former master at Wellington College and political commentator who has written biographies on David Cameron, Tony Blair, John Major and Gordon Brown, said: ‘It certainly will change human life as we know it.
‘It will open up the possibility of an Eton or Wellington education for all.
‘Everyone can have the very best teacher and it’s completely personalised. The software you’re working with will be with you throughout your education journey.
The University of Buckingham vice chancellor says it makes him ‘desperately sad’ but he believes the changes will take place within the next 10 years. Pictures posed by models
‘It can move at the speed of the learner.
‘This is beyond anything we’ve seen in the industrial revolution or since with any other new technology.
‘These are machines that adapt to individuals.
‘They will listen to the voices of the learners, read their faces and study them in the way gifted teachers study their students.
‘We’re looking at screens which are listening to the voice of the student and reading the face of the student. Reading and comprehending.’
The academic outlined his vision in a talk at the British Science Festival which took place in Brighton last week.
It will also be the subject of his new book The Fourth Education Revolution, due to be published early next year.
He explained that in the new AI classrooms, each child will progress at his or her own pace.
There will be no more set courses applicable to all students as teaching, carried out by emotionally sensitive machines, will become highly personalised.
Asked if he was suggesting machines would replace the inspirational role of teachers, he said: ‘I’m desperately sad about this but I’m afraid I am.
‘These machines will be extraordinarily inspirational.
‘You’ll still have the humans there walking around during school time, but in fact the inspiration in terms of intellectual excitement will come from the lighting-up of the brain which the machines will be superbly well-geared for.
‘The machines will know what it is that most excites you and gives you a natural level of challenge that is not too hard or too easy, but just right for you.’
The academic and political commentator says he is ‘alarmed’ by the prospect, a feeling he expects members of the National Union of Teachers will share. Picture posed by models
He expected the National Union of Teachers to be ‘very alarmed’ by the prospect, a feeling he shared.
He added: ‘The technology’s already beginning to arrive.
‘It’s already there on the west coast of the US and it’s already beginning to transform schools.
‘I’m expecting this to happen in the next 10 years.
‘The great danger is that it takes jobs away,and for humans beings much of our fulfilment in life comes from the satisfaction of work.
‘We’re not hard-wired not to work.
‘If we get the technology wrong it will end up doing everything for us in the same way that satnavs mean we no longer know how to read maps.’