According to Gallup, Microsoft and Anthropic pledged to back the $23 million initiative to develop an AI training curriculum for teachers. Here, we’ll discuss how AI tools promote smarter teaching and why AI can become an integral part of the education industry.
Africa has a large population of youngsters who require access to proper educational facilities. Even in 2025, 30 million children are still out of school. There’s a digital divide that further threatens to widen the gap between kids from different economic levels. The Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2026-2035 has produced a detailed report outlining the actions required by African countries to ensure their educational systems flourish and grow, thereby providing better learning opportunities for their youth.
Factors like income, language, amenities, infrastructure, climatic conditions, etc., play a vital role in bridging the gap and providing quality education to students. The authorities have to balance between making education accessible to everyone and implementing advanced technologies like AI to enrich classroom learning.
From lesson planning to creating assessment questions, various teaching and non-teaching activities can be enhanced using artificial intelligence tools. Schools in the Sub-Saharan region and a few other African countries, like Rwanda, Kenya, etc., are actively adopting AI solutions to improve the quality of education. They are also focusing on training teachers to use AI tools for smarter teaching.
Why AI Tools are Effective for Smarter Teaching
For centuries, education had been conventional and a field that relied on several manual processes. A majority of the workload falls on teachers who do everything from creating curriculums, making lesson plans, taking daily classes, assessments creation, evaluating submissions, guiding students, and so on.
However, with the advent of technology, many of these activities can be automated and simplified, freeing up time for teachers and allowing them to work smarter. Technology and digitalization don’t just reduce workload. They revamp the teaching process and add a new dimension to it. This makes classroom learning and education more engaging, thereby attracting a greater percentage of kids to schools. In African countries, this can be a game changer in encouraging more youth to study and graduate from school.
Here are a few ways in which AI tools are useful to make teaching smarter and more effective:
AI for Brainstorming Lessons
Artificial intelligence chatbots, especially generative AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, etc., are wonderful tools (with free plans) for teachers to brainstorm new topics, ways to make lessons engaging, and curate additional study material. Teachers can use the generative AI chatbot as an ideation partner to come up with new and interesting ways to engage students during lessons. They can then discuss the deals with each other and use AI to structure the lessons, add multimedia content, generate audiovisual files, etc. All of these will eventually help in creating competency based assessment to test the cognitive skills of students and help them become better, competent adults.
AI as the Future of Assessment
Artificial intelligence is the future of assessments. Why? Because AI makes test case creation super easy by automatically converting input content into a question paper and grading the answers submitted to provide instant results. How does this help teachers? It saves the time and energy teachers spend going through pages of study material and creating question papers for various examinations at school. They don’t have to manually evaluate each answer sheet either. By using AI to automate such processes, teachers can use their time effectively to discuss the lessons in detail, solve students’ queries, explain concepts another time, etc.
For example, PrepAI is an NLP-based (natural language processing) robust tool to create competency based learning assessments in a few minutes and conduct tests in real-time. Supported by Bloom’s Taxonomy framework, it creates different types of questions that test the higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) of students and assist teachers in identifying and enhancing their skills and abilities.
AI for Curriculum Creation
Just as we have assessment creation tools, there are AI tools to create course and class curricula that encompass bookish knowledge, practical application, physical activities, soft skills training, etc. A customized curriculum designed with help from AI tools will be more relevant, effective, and empowering. It promotes smarter teaching by aligning the content with the year’s educational goals and the vision and mission of the establishment. Moreover, teachers can create the curriculum quickly and personalize it by changing the input parameters. For example, an AI curriculum creator will generate a clear outline of lessons and supporting materials based on the input provided (age group, skill levels, and other specifications).
AI for Analytics and Feedback
Some teachers become students’ favourites because of their ability to understand each student and guide them accordingly. Thanks to AI, every teacher can do this using data-driven analytics. The AI tools don’t just automate various tasks. They also process the data to provide insights. For example, the answers submitted by students for a technical assessment or a functional assessment are analysed by the AI test generator to help teachers identify the weak areas, recurring learning patterns, students’ capabilities, and so on. Instead of relying only on gut feelings, teachers can combine their professional experience, instincts, and data-driven insights to give useful and encouraging feedback to students. This makes the feedback more personal and relevant.
The Need for AI-Powered Tools and Teacher Training Initiatives
The recent report by Gallup showed many interesting insights about how AI has been beneficial to teachers by saving time and improving the quality of work, especially when used regularly.
The National Academy of AI Instruction announced a $23 million initiative to develop an AI training curriculum for teachers and help them use the technology for smarter teaching. This initiative is backed by Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic, as well as the national American Federation of Teachers and New York-based United Federation of Teachers.
Though some schools have banned AI, many others have been using it in various ways. The key factor is to empower teachers in using AI-powered tools while addressing the need for ethical and responsible AI implementation.
Addressing Concerns about AI
A common concern is the overdependence on AI and how students may resort to shortcuts. However, instead of banning AI, teachers should be encouraged to explain the pros and cons of relying on AI tools and help students differentiate between ethical use of AI and malpractices, such as cheating, plagiarism, etc.
Bridging the Technology Gap
The technology gap is real. Before teachers can confidently implement AI at school, they should be empowered to understand how the tools work and can help them perform various activities seamlessly. AI training for teachers also ensures that they can guide students in using AI responsibly.
Building AI-Ready Schools
AI cannot be ignored in today’s world. Banning it won’t stop students from using AI. A better approach is to create awareness and build educational systems that are ready for AI implementation on a large scale.
Final Words
Artificial intelligence is not only the future of assessment but also a comprehensive solution to personalize education and develop smarter teaching methodologies. It’s no surprise that more educational institutions are recognizing the value of using AI responsibly to provide better learning opportunities.
Teachers can start with something as simple as test case creation AI tools to streamline quizzes, class tests, and assessments. Know a teacher who could benefit from AI-powered assistance? Partner with us to take smarter assessments to more classrooms and earn a commission!
