My response: It’s only a matter of time before someone implements this. In a revolutionary move, David Game College, a private school in London, is scheduled to launch its new teacherless course for 20 GCSE students this September. Students will learn from artificial intelligence platforms and through virtual reality headsets.

Supporters of this move will argue that an AI-empowered classroom will make students’ learning more efficient as the AI tools are able to analyse students’ mistakes and come up with supplementary questions that plug their learning gaps. Indeed, having a personal tutor is likely to accelerate one’s learning. However, I firmly believe that students should not be fixated on taking “shortcuts” and learning efficiently. Even though a teacher-led classroom may not be ideal in addressing all students’ doubts, students still derive value from struggling through their cognitive confusion and understanding their weak areas. Moreover, being compelled to articulate their doubts in front of peers and teachers helps students polish their communication skills - an invaluable competency in today’s working world.

Aside from helping students gain ownership of their learning, a teacher-led classroom also promotes the development of soft skills, such as teamwork. With a teacherless classroom, there is hardly any incentive for students to come together and work on tasks and projects. However, not doing so may be detrimental to them because they will miss out on the chance to discuss their ideas and deepen their understanding with their peers. It is through working together that students learn the fine art of negotiation, pick up conflict resolution skills and harness the collective creativity. A teacher-led classroom, hence, is superior to its teacherless counterpart because it promotes collaboration among students under the tutelage of a skilful educator.

Moreover, AI-enabled tools have their limitations. Since they are based on Large Learning Models, their accuracy and effectiveness are dependent upon the size and currency of the training data. This pales in comparison to a teacher-led classroom, in which the educator can get his students up to speed on contemporary affairs. In this increasingly volatile and complex world, being overly reliant on AI platforms may cause students to compromise on their competitiveness because novel scientific developments quickly render old methods obsolete. As such, AI-empowered tools should only serve as complementary to a teacher-led classroom, not replace the educator.