‘Game-changing’ tech solution sought for Scottish teacher workload

Teacher workload is one of the most intractable problems in education – now, the Scottish government is looking to the tech industry for solutions.

In particular, it is interested in how artificial intelligence (AI) could have “major beneficial impacts” on the hours of overtime teachers report working every week. Up for grabs is a 24-month contract worth up to £650,000.

Speaking in the Scottish Parliament earlier this month, in response to the Hayward review of qualifications and assessment, education secretary Jenny Gilruth said that “teachers require more time if they are to accept a greater responsibility for formal assessment”.

Using AI to reduce teacher workload

As well as remaining committed to reducing teacher class-contact time, she said, the Scottish government had “launched a ‘CivTech Challenge’, which invites bids designed to reduce teacher workload, via the use of AI”.

Tes Scotland can now reveal that the government, along with Aberdeenshire Council and Dumfries and Galloway Council, is challenging bidders to explore how technology could help reduce workload.

They say tasks where more innovative solutions may be most effective include areas such as: preparing resources; planning and preparing lessons; data recording, input, and analysis; and marking and feedback to pupils.

They are also interested in lightening school leaders’ load through technological solutions that: reduce the administration around managing staff, as well as support premises management; help manage central and government reporting paperwork; and reduce school clerical or admin work.

The contract comes under the banner of CivTech, a Scottish government programme that aims to create digital solutions to public sector problems.

Most CivTech challenges, according to its website, start with a well-defined problem and a clear sense of the required outcomes. The teacher-workload challenge, however, is different: it is a “wildcard challenge” because it is “inviting ideas that can effect change across a broader theme and – potentially – on a much grander scale”.

But according to Mark Elliott, head of CivTech division, the system is the same: ideas need to be “game-changing” and “really ambitious”, he says in a video clip on the teacher workload challenge webpage.

He also says: “We want you to create something that could make a fundamental difference to public services. We want you to do AI for impact.”

Orlando Heijmer-Mason, deputy director for workforce infrastructure and digital in the government’s learning directorate, says in another clip that teacher workload “is a real issue”, with the “negative impacts” felt by teachers and school leaders, but also “throughout the school community”.

He is excited about “bringing fresh eyes” to the problem and looking at teacher workload “through a new lens”.

“CivTech is a fantastic way for us to tap into those new perspectives, new technologies that potentially can shape new solutions to these issues,” he says.

AI approach in England ‘misunderstands what teachers do’

The UK government has similarly suggested that AI could help teachers with workload around lesson plans and assessments, but some in the profession say this fundamentally misunderstands the issues.

One problem, said Ed Finch, co-founder of #BrewEd, in a piece for Tes this month, is that the AI-based approach proposed in England “misunderstands what teachers do when they are planning”.

The closing date for bids for the teacher workload challenge was 10 September. Typically, six applications are taken forward, which are then whittled down to three (the “exploration stage”) and then one (the “accelerator stage”).

For the teacher-workload challenge, the “exploration stage” is expected to run from 11 to 29 November and the “accelerator stage” is expected to run from 20 January to 2 May 2025.

For the latest in Scottish education delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for Tes’ The Week in Scotland newsletter