How AI can help transform the Gulf's education systems

Educating a child takes 12 years, and so modifying the education system in any given country means waiting at least 10 years for the effects to be tangible. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Reforming primary and secondary education systems in almost any part of the world typically requires at least 10 years for the effects to begin to materialise. But integrating artificial intelligence raises the prospect of accelerating reforms and compressing a 10 or 20-year cycle into five years or less. Using AI to further improve their respective education systems could, therefore, end up being the single-most important contribution that the Gulf countries make to their ongoing economic diversification strategies.

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study is a systematic effort to compare educational outcomes between countries. In the 2023 cycle, 58 countries participated, including all six Gulf countries. Overall, their performance confirmed that their achievements fall short of their aspirations. For example, in the Grade 8 mathematics evaluation, five of the six Gulf states were in the bottom 14, with only the UAE lying in the middle of the global pack.

Such findings will have provided food for thought to policymakers in the region, given the importance of education to most countries’ long-term economic development. Historically, when countries with modest natural resources have realised high living standards, having a highly educated population has always been a prerequisite, with countries such as Ireland, Singapore and South Korea being examples.

The challenge that policymakers face when seeking to reform their education systems is that it is an excruciating process that requires unusually high levels of patience. There are two reasons for this. First, educating a child takes 12 years, and so modifying the education system means waiting at least 10 years for the effects to be tangible. This timeline is further extended by the need to teach teachers, too, as upskilling instructors is central to improving schooling.

The second reason is that education extends well beyond the classroom, and it includes family and public life. Reforming the latter two, for example by encouraging parents to read more with their children, also requires a long horizon.

Yet AI offers a way to supercharge this traditionally slow process.

When being introduced to AI in educational settings, teachers often fixate on the downsides, namely the negative effects it might have on human creativity, and the threats that AI poses to the integrity of standard assessment techniques such as take-home exams. This has led some reactive educational institutions to blanket-ban the use of AI pending gaining a better understanding of its impact.

Educators around the world have been slow in exploiting AI, primarily due to the scepticism about new technologies

However, when it comes to student instruction, AI is a veritable double-edged sword. Arguably the most important element on the positive side of the ledger is the personalisation of teaching – in other words, the ability to present the material to the student in a manner that is tailored to the student’s unique strengths and weaknesses. Traditional classroom settings involve a teacher instructing in a largely homogenised fashion, with strict limits on the teacher’s ability to respond to the needs of individual students. That harms both lower-ability students who are struggling to keep up, and their precocious cohorts who want to stride ahead but are held back by the class average.

Vast amounts of research have found that having AI-powered assistants for each student who absorb the material that the teacher is presenting and then adapting it to the student’s idiosyncrasies can have a transformational impact on educational outcomes: what typically takes a year to learn in a standard classroom setting can take as little as two months under AI-powered tailoring. It also makes the process of learning much more enjoyable for both teacher and student, with most of the frustration induced by homogenous instruction eliminated.

So far, educators around the world have been somewhat slow in exploiting this opportunity, primarily due to the scepticism that all humans have about new technologies. Teachers are understandably hesitant about the prospect of introducing a tool into their classroom that might ultimately eliminate their profession. This creates an opportunity for the Gulf countries to become global leaders in AI-centred educational reforms, subject to them paying attention to key risks and pitfalls.

The first is the need to assuage teachers’ fears about losing their jobs to AI. There are many potential ways to ensure that AI improves educators’ productivity rather than displaces their efforts, but uncovering these methods requires working closely with teachers to explore the options. For example, by focusing AI on routine elements of the instruction cycle, teachers can allocate more time to mentorship, project-based learning and social-emotional support. This approach emphasises AI’s inability to replicate core components of teaching, namely empathy, moral guidance and nuanced judgment.

The second is demonstrating high levels of administrative agility. Using the benefits of AI in the classroom requires much more than downloading an app and making small adjustments to the daily routine. Instead, schools need to effect a total transformation in their approach to education, with teachers needing to be retrained, classrooms needing to be repurposed, parents needing to be informed, and civil servants needing to undergo a mindset shift. The nimbleness that the Gulf countries have so far shown in areas such as legal reforms needs to be transplanted to the educational sector, with an understanding by all stakeholders that if you want to make an omelette, you need to break eggs.

AI is not a silver bullet, but it might be the closest thing we have ever had to one in education. If the Gulf countries embrace this technology with the same boldness that they have shown in economic and legal reforms, they can speed up a transformation that once took generations. The window of opportunity is open – and those who act swiftly and smartly could leapfrog their way to the global educational frontier. In the race for economic diversification, AI in the classroom might just be the Gulf’s most powerful accelerator.