The School Master’s Dilemma: Blackboard, Smartphone and AI

I entered that remote village as a primary school master. I had not even heard of the place. I found that most girls did not go for higher studies after schooling, and a large number of boys did not even complete school. I was deeply saddened by those children.

The local people were petty farmers or farm workers, with a few traders and craftsmen. In the evenings most of them rushed to the local toddy shop, owned by the Panchayat President.

A Campaign for Education

My first concern was helping students continue their studies and acquire skills. With the help of some bright students and local people, I started a campaign for continuing education — though the Panchayat President was unhappy, fearing a shortage of workers for his farms. Even so, we helped several girls and boys go for higher education. I became well known among the villagers, though I was only a primary school master with a blackboard, chalk and a cane. Parents even insisted I use the cane to maintain discipline.

The Panchayat President was displeased with me for exposing rampant corruption in the construction of roads, bridges and buildings. I decided to study further and qualify as a high school teacher.

From Blackboard to Smartphone

After qualifying, I joined as a high school teacher. Students were made to learn multiplication tables, verses and science lessons by heart. Then the coronavirus spread, and education moved online. Students were given smartphones. After the pandemic, students had changed radically. They knew how to search on Google and were connected through Facebook and WhatsApp. Teachers became partners in learning rather than the sole authority. Social media and search engines became the true teachers. I witnessed all these changes — and still received my promotions and higher salary.

AI Enters as a Big Bang

Quite unexpectedly, Artificial Intelligence entered education as a Big Bang. Teachers realised that without a minimum mastery of AI they would become laughing stocks for the students. Teachers began competing with students in using AI. Increasingly, teachers need not teach, assess or evaluate, because students know AI better than most teachers.

Astonishingly, AI now dictates what students learn, think and write. Students and teachers need not read any book or make an independent decision — they simply worship AI as their new god.

Nobody asks what comes next, or what the culmination of AI will be. Can teachers and students foresee a future beyond AI? Practically everybody has become a glorified slave of the machine.

Is the machine your tool — or your new god?