Technology companies are being urged to develop better AI tools to ease teachers’ workloads, with ministers announcing they will give AI models special access to the Department for Education’s (DfE) resource database.

Education Secretary Stephen Morgan said the move was “a massive step forward for AI in the classroom”, adding that the government had spent £3 million to build a “content bank” of official assessments, curriculum guidelines and teaching materials.

Although many teachers say they already use AI to assist them, current AI tools are not trained on material specifically designed or approved for use in English classrooms.

According to the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the new content bank will enable developers to train their AI models to create “accurate and high-quality content” such as workbooks and lesson plans.

A further £1 million will be awarded to developers through a competition to find the best ideas for using the DfE database to reduce teachers’ workload. Each winner will develop an AI tool to help teachers with feedback and assessment tasks by March 2025.

Morgan said at an international education conference in South Korea that the initiative is the first government-approved repository of high-quality teaching materials optimized for AI development.

“Artificial intelligence, if made safe and reliable, represents an exciting opportunity to assist our school leaders and teachers in their day-to-day classrooms,” Morgan said.

“This investment will allow us to safely harness the power of technology to benefit our hard-working teachers, reducing the pressure and workload faced by the profession and freeing up time to focus on face-to-face teaching.”

A DfE study published on Wednesday found that the accuracy of an AI model can be increased from 67% to 92% by using targeted content to train it.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said AI had the potential to ease the “overwhelming” burden on teachers if concerns about its reliability could be addressed.

“However, it is important to recognize that AI is a tool and not something that can replace the human expertise and interaction with students that only our highly qualified and professional teaching staff can provide,” Di’Iasio said.

“The immediate problem is that we are struggling to recruit and retain enough teachers because the previous government has worsened wages and working conditions over the past decade and a half. This is the problem that needs to be addressed urgently.”

Chris Goodall, teacher and head of digital education at the Bourne Education Trust, said he has been using AI to create teaching materials since November 2022 and is now helping teachers improve lessons and reduce administration at 26 of the trust’s schools.

“I’ve used AI to quickly create supported activities, adapt materials for students with special educational needs, and create more engaging lessons that are accessible to all. The time saved allows school staff to focus on what matters most: interacting with students and providing individualized feedback and support,” Goodall said.

A study on attitudes towards AI in education published by the DfE and DSIT’s Responsible Use of Technology Unit found that most parents supported teachers’ use of AI to support their work, but were more hesitant about direct interaction with students.

The study found that participants were concerned that “the loss of important social and technical skills and the reduction in time for human contact could lead to unintended negative consequences.”