FG urged to develop policy on use of AI in school systems to avoid generating wrong information

By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi

Nigeria’s Government has been advised to develop a control measure on the use and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in order to check excesses and abuse particularly in the education sector.

The call was made by Prof Lawan Abdulhamid, WITS School of Education, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, during a 3-day capacity building training workshop for PRS, Principals and Head Teachers of Schools in Bauchi State organised by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in collaboration with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Abuja, held on Monday at the SMAT School with the theme: Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK).

According to him, “The key thing in AI is the ethical use of the AI, there are ways it could be used ethically especially in the area of access. People tend to be scared about AI destroying the school system just as it happened in 1954 when calculator was introduced into the schools system.”

“People got worried about how to teach basic things in addition and practical mathematics where simple calculator will give the answers, but now, calculators have become part of the school system,”he added.

Lawan Abdulhamid added that,”AI is transforming our education system and we need to learn how best to use and apply AI. In this era of open resources, AI is helping education emmensely.”

According to him, “AI in many ways can be used out of content, a person using AI to generate data and notes, should have background information on the subject matters on what the AI is generating, there are situations whereby AI generates wrong information which is damaging.”

He stressed that, “I think it is a concern and now around the world, they have started developing the policy on the use of AI and I believe that very soon, Bauchi State Government and the Federal Government of Nigeria as a country in the digital system will have to come up with such a policy.”

“One interesting thing is that my colleagues have started thinking of developing AI for education systems, to initiate a boundary that does not go beyond education. When such is designed, developed and made available in schools, teachers can make use of AI with confidence that it will not go out of content,” he added.

He then warned teachers and other educators using AI to develop lessons notes and plans, to be careful of what they are doing so that they will not generate the wrong information which will jeopardise the essence of sourcing materials for teaching.

He stressed that, “For any teacher using AI to develop lessons notes and plans, he/she must know what the content is so that there will be no wrong information.”

He expressed that the essence of the workshop was basically to give updates on the development in technology as it affects education sector and to keep the managers abreast of the latest issues for the effective performances.

He added that, “We started with the PRS, Principals and Head Teachers, later it will be stepped down to the Teachers. Our aim is to ensure that no school is left behind in the technology drive which is happening globally.”

The Lead Facilitator dismissed the issue of old age in technological advancement saying,”We are not worried about their ages, it will amaze you how old people are manipulating the Cell phones, it is the same thing with computers, the most important thing is availability and interest to learn.”