Governor Peter Mbah says Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies should be seen as tools to enhance teachers’ effectiveness, not as threats to their jobs.
Mbah stated this on Tuesday in Enugu at the 59th National Conference of Delegates of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT).
Speaking on the theme, “Deployment of Technology and Artificial Intelligence in Education Will Erode the Place of Teachers in the Classroom: Myth or Reality?”, the governor said resisting AI is unjustifiable, likening its impact to that of the steam engine during the Industrial Revolution.
”AI can assist the teacher. It can personalise learning, support lesson preparation, identify learning gaps and expand access to knowledge. But it cannot replace the human qualities that make a teacher a teacher,” Mbah said.
”The future is therefore not teacher versus technology. The future is teacher with technology,” he added.
He called for ethical standards, data protection, responsible regulation and continuous capacity-building to ensure AI adoption benefits both teachers and learners, stressing that teachers should be principal beneficiaries and drivers of the revolution, not victims.
Mbah said his administration has treated education as a transformative tool, investing heavily in school infrastructure, technology and teachers’ welfare in the last 40 months.
He disclosed that the state recruited 6,850 teachers to improve the student-teacher ratio and has consistently allocated 33 per cent of its budget to education, above UNESCO’s 15 to 20 per cent benchmark.
He cited the establishment of technology-driven Smart Green Schools across the 260 wards in the state as part of efforts to prepare children for the future.
He commended the NUT leadership and the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria for restoring dignity to the teaching profession.
AI Won’t Replace Teachers, It Will Empower Them — Gov Mbah
By Nwoko
2 views
Facebook Comments Box
Comments