Education
Anthropic, Microsoft and OpenAI fund new school to educate teachers on using AI
Leading artificial intelligence companies are stepping up their efforts to bring AI to schools across the U.S.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) on Tuesday announced the fall launch of the National Academy for AI Instruction, a $23 million endeavor backed by Anthropic, Microsoft and OpenAI, three main players in the generative AI revolution.
“The direct connection between a teacher and their kids can never be replaced by new technologies, but if we learn how to harness it, set commonsense guardrails and put teachers in the driver’s seat, teaching and learning can be enhanced,”AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a release.
OpenAI has committed to giving $10 million over five years, while Microsoft will provide $12.5 million. Anthropic, meanwhile, will contribute $500,000 the first year, said Andrew Crook, a spokesperson for the AFT.
The companies say the training academy will offer a space for educators to learn how to harness AI and implement it safely and ethically in their classrooms. The programming, designed by AI experts and educators, will include workshops, online courses and hands-on training sessions, according to the AFT.
Courses will begin this fall at the United Federation of Teachers’ facility in Manhattan, New York. Funding from the tech trio will also go toward the buildout of additional hubs throughout the U.S., which are set to open in 2030, according to Crook. UFT is an affiliate of AFT.
AFT said the academy will offer free virtual training to all 1.8 million members in its union, starting with K-12 educators. The federation’s ultimate goal is to train 400,000 educators — about 10% of the U.S. teaching workforce — at the in-person facility over the next five years.
“We want to do it in a way that teachers can really master the tools,” Randi Weingarten, the president of AFT, told CBS MoneyWatch.
Mike Tyson, in his characteristic bluntness, distilled it further: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” And Dwight Eisenhower, the architect of World War II’s D-Day, offered a gentler and more profound version: “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
Also Read: Campus conundrum: Educators lack clarity on how to deal with AI in classrooms
These words resonate far beyond battlefields and boxing rings—even in the world of education.
Over the past decades, a minor industry has emerged around pre-packaged lesson plans for teachers. These are meticulously structured templates, detailing how a teacher should conduct a class—what to say, when to say it, even how students might respond.
The actors in this space range from well-intentioned education reformers to commercial entities selling ‘teacher efficiency’ tools. Yet, these efforts are largely futile. Not necessarily because the plans are poorly designed, but because they misunderstand the essence of teaching.
A lesson plan in the hands of a teacher who did not create it is like a battle strategy handed to a commander who wasn’t part of its formulation and so does not understand the variables involved.
The real value lies not in the plan itself, but in the act of planning. This means wrestling with questions like: How will my students react? Who will respond in what manner and then what should I do? Which ones have the requisite prior knowledge? What misconceptions might arise or are already held? How do I adapt if they don’t grasp the concept? What tools do I have?
Also Read: Education crisis: Don’t let fads disrupt the fundamentals of learning
A teacher who has thought through these variables can improvise, adjust and even change course when reality inevitably diverges from the script. But a teacher handed a ready-made plan is often useless at best and sometimes prone to dysfunctional teaching, as such a plan can lock a teacher into certain patterns of behaviour and response.
This dynamic is now mutating—rapidly and perhaps dangerously—with the rise of large language model-based AI systems. Lesson plans, teaching materials and entire course structures can now be generated in seconds. And this isn’t just happening in the commercial sector; teachers themselves are doing it, particularly in higher education. Some faculty members have quietly been outsourcing their thinking to AI. To them, it seems like efficiency. Why spend hours crafting a lecture when ChatGPT can draft one in minutes? But this is the thin end of the wedge. If your job is to develop the capacity to think, and you outsource your own, where does that leave your professional role?
This is ironically symbiotic with another widespread trend: students using AI to outsource their learning. Assignments, essays and solutions to problem sets can now be generated with minimal effort. The traditional ‘take-home’ assignment is effectively dead in many institutions. And let’s be honest—most of us, as students, would have done the same. If an AI bot can write your essay in 30 seconds, why spend three hours? But this defeats the entire purpose of education: to develop the capacity to think.
Also Read: The great AI reboot: Educators, techies and leaders all need to adapt fast
This shift is spreading exponentially, like a pandemic of outsourced thinking. Schools, with their naturally younger age groups, less resources and tighter oversight, are somewhat insulated, but higher education is compromised. No one knows the full extent yet, but the implications are dire. We are witnessing the unmaking of education’s core function. If teachers and students stop thinking, what remains?
So, where does all this leave us? If both teachers and students are circumventing the essential hard work of thought, what is education for? A partial solution—unpleasant but necessary—is a return to in-person assessments: supervised exams, vivas and live discussions. There is no shortcut here. If we want to ensure that learning happens, we must watch it happen.
Eisenhower was right: Planning matters, not the plan. The process of wrestling with ideas, anticipating challenges and adapting—that’s where most real learning happens. Like pre-made lesson plans, AI can be a tool, but it must never impinge on the core of education. Unfortunately, the human tendency to follow the easier path propels the reckless use of AI at the core of education. And used recklessly, AI does not aid education but destroy it.
The only way forward is to affirm the value of struggle in education. We must expect students to understand and act accordingly, but we must anticipate they will not. Too many of them will take the easier path. So, this must be the professional-ethical commitment of teaching as an institutional system. Use AI sparingly, prudently and only where no harm is done to the process and goals of education. And at every step, we must reaffirm that thinking can be exhilarating but is also hard.
Teaching, likewise, can be fulfilling but is hard. Learning can be fun, but is hard. And that’s the whole point of education.
The author is CEO of Azim Premji Foundation.
Education reporter
Hayley Clarke / BBCSchool children are getting less meat, cheaper ingredients and smaller portions in their lunches as caterers battle rising costs, the new chair of a school food organisation has said.
Michael Hales, incoming chair of LACA, said schools were increasingly having to bridge the gap between government funding for free school meals and the rising cost of delivering dinner for all of their pupils.
It comes after the government said it would expand free school meals, which Mr Hales said was “welcome”, but added that more funding would be “essential”.
The Department for Education (DfE) said the “fully funded” expansion of free school meals was a “historic step to tackle the stain of child poverty”.
A spokesperson added the government would keep the meal rates paid to schools, which fund free school meals, under review.
In April, the government said those rates would rise by 3p in the next academic year, from £2.58 to £2.61 per meal – a rise which Mr Hales said was “inadequate” and “almost considered an insult”.
He said it meant caterers who were part of LACA and provided about three million school dinners a day, were having to make “really difficult decisions” over portion sizes, and the quality of ingredients they could afford.
He said it was becoming an “ever increasing challenge” to meet the government’s school food standards, which officials said they were looking to “revise” with input from sector experts.
In Stoke-on-Trent, head teacher Clare Morton said she was spending £45,000 per year topping up the money she received from the government to pay for free school meals.
That money could be spent on another member of staff at St Mary’s Primary School, she said, but added it was vitally important all the children were well fed.
“For a lot of our children, this is the only hot meal that they will get during the day,” she said.
“Without healthy food, without a full tummy, these children won’t be able to learn.”
Hayley Clarke / BBCIn England, the government will pay primary schools £2.61 per meal in 2025-26 to deliver its universal infant free school meals scheme, which makes all children from reception up to Year 2, regardless of household income, eligible for a free school dinner.
After Year 2, primary and secondary schools also get additional pupil premium funding from government for each of their pupils who gets a free school meal. Currently, children qualify for a free school meal if their family is on Universal Credit and earns under £7,400 a year.
In June, the government announced that it would be changing that eligibility criteria to make all children whose families are on Universal Credit, regardless of household income, eligible for a free school meal from September 2026.
The change would mean 500,000 more children qualify for a free school meal, the government said.
Ms Morton said it was “fantastic” more children would be eligible, but added the government “needs to acknowledge that there’s a gap between what the school are actually getting and how much it costs to feed the children”.
Currently, the money her school needs to fund that gap is supported by 72 parents who pay for their child’s school meal. As the free school meals scheme expands and more children become eligible, that income will be “wiped out”, she said.
The government’s 3p meal rate increase “really isn’t enough” to make up any of the school’s £45,000 food deficit, she added.
Mr Hales said a recent survey of its members suggested the real cost of delivering a meal was actually more like £3.45 – roughly 80p more than the £2.61 given to schools to fund free school meals in England.
LACA said it sent its annual cost of living survey to 500 members. The 67 who responded said they catered for a total of 5,689 schools with a total pupil population of roughly 1.3 million. Overall, England has approximately 24,000 state schools with an overall pupil population of just over nine million.
Ann Gannon / BBCOf the 67 schools, councils and private catering firms who responded to the LACA survey:
- 17 said they had decreased some portion sizes
- 35 said they had cut some menu options
- 38 said they had reduced some meats with cheaper protein sources
- 56 said they had adjusted their recipes
LACA said its survey also suggested that, since March 2020, the amount paid for school dinners by parents whose children were not eligible for free school meals had increased by 20%.
Mr Hales said that could continue to rise if schools were unable to meet rising costs with increased government funding.
Mum-of-three Mandy Mazliah, from Cambridgeshire, said she had concerns about the nutritional value of her children’s school dinners.
The 45-year-old, who runs a food blog and is a parent ambassador for a children’s food campaign, said her children, aged between 10 and 15, have a mix of packed lunches and dinners provided for them at school.
She said the school food could vary between healthy, balanced meals and pizzas, cookies and donuts, and in some cases portion sizes had been getting smaller.
“What we need is proper investment from the government in healthy school meals, and in fact a whole school food approach to make it more affordable for schools to provide nutritious, appealing, healthy food for all of our children,” she added.
Trish PetersProvision of free school meals varies significantly across the UK.
In London and Wales, the offer of a universal free school meal has been extended to all primary school children up to Year 6.
Although the funding rate for most of England is £2.61, in London schools get a higher rate of £3. In Wales, the rate is £3.20.
In Scotland, all children in the first five years of primary school are eligible for free school meals, as well as all children from families receiving the Scottish Child Payment benefit.
Parents in Northern Ireland can apply if they receive certain benefits and are below an income threshold of £15,000.
Additional reporting by Rahib Khan
July 9, 2025
SINGAPORE – Young people need to develop strong judgment, reasoning abilities and foundational knowledge, even as artificial intelligence (AI) tools are able to perform both mundane and complex tasks, said Minister for Education Desmond Lee.
AI cannot supplant learning – it must enable it, he said to the media on July 8 at Oasis Primary School in Punggol, in his first school visit since his appointment as education minister.
Other key priorities for the Ministry of Education (MOE) include helping students develop social and emotional skills and effect a “generational shift” away from competition based on grades and towards a passion for learning.
Mr Lee cited the example of how AI could help young lawyers draft submissions, but only those with proper training and experience are able to assess and improve on the AI output.
“You can tell what is right, what is wrong. What is real and what is not, and what is right for your situation,” he said.
To this end, Mr Lee said it is important to prepare children for an AI-pervasive future, while also fostering in them curiosity and social-emotional skills.
This would first require the age-appropriate use of AI in classrooms and teaching children about what AI is and its limits.
With social and emotional skills becoming increasingly important – not just in school, but also in workplaces and the wider community – this is another area of focus for MOE.
Mr Lee said: “All these social-emotional skills can be more important than just your academic hard knowledge.”
These include compassion, expressing oneself appropriately, navigating challenging environments and being able to self-regulate and empathise with others.
At Oasis Primary School, Mr Lee observed Primary 4 English and art lessons that demonstrated how the school integrates social-emotional skills into these subjects.
During the English lesson, pupils used the popular young adult book Wonder – about a boy with facial deformities – as a springboard to share how they would feel if they faced discrimination.
For the art lesson, pupils worked in groups to come up with a superhero logo based on values.
Mr Lee said such approaches bring lessons to life.
“It doesn’t just give our children the foundation in the subject, but also uses the opportunity to get them to think critically, think thoughtfully, to engage with classmates and to think about how they relate to people who are different from themselves,” he said.
By including group work, these activities go beyond nurturing individual creativity, and encourages pupils to collaborate and share ideas with each other, he added.
“You can see leadership in action. You see collaboration in action, cooperation, give and take and also working towards a product that is bigger than the sum of the individual parts. So that was very encouraging,” the minister said.
On MOE’s efforts to shift away from an emphasis on competition around grades so that students can develop a lifelong passion for learning, he said: “It will take time, and we require three parties to play a part – our pre-schools, primary schools as well as our parents.”
Another key area is how schools can better partner with the community to support children from more challenging backgrounds, such as those whose families are beneficiaries of ComLink+, a scheme to support lower-income households.
Likening the approach to a triangle comprising housing, education and jobs and skills, Mr Lee said these areas are where these families need help.
“I think it will give them a better shot in achieving stability, self-reliance and, ultimately, social mobility.”
Mr Lee said there is a need to strengthen the transition from pre-school to primary school, especially through MOE kindergartens. PHOTO: THE STRAITS TIMES
Visiting the MOE Kindergarten (MK) located at Oasis Primary School, Mr Lee also said there is a need to strengthen the transition from pre-school to primary school, especially through MKs.
“Our pre-school landscape is diverse and rich, and we are the better off for it. But MKs allow an opportunity to test-bed ideas for us to be able to look at enhancements to pre-school pedagogies,” he said.
He noted that many parents appreciate MKs sitting within primary schools, as many pre-schoolers go on to attend primary schools near their homes.
Madam Nur Liyana Saine, 38, whose daughter Faiha Fatiha, eight, had moved from MK@Oasis to Primary 1 in the same school, said the child’s familiarity with the environment made the move easier.
Mathematics and science teacher Nur Liyana Saine at Oasis Primary School, with her daughter Faiha Fatiha. PHOTO: THE STRAITS TIMES
“She knew what to expect, like where to go during morning flag-raising and reading time, because she had experienced it in MK,” said Madam Liyana, who is a mathematics and science teacher at Oasis Primary School.
“For a six-year-old, big spaces like the school hall can be intimidating. But because she had been there for events like Chinese New Year celebrations, it felt familiar,” she added.
The MK programme was started in 2014 to provide quality pre-school education that is affordable to Singaporeans. Among other goals, it aims to “encourage bilingualism in the early years and help lay a strong foundation for language learning in the later years”, the ministry had said previously.
An MOE spokesperson said the ministry plans to open 60 MKs by 2029.
After observing mother tongue lessons at MK@Oasis, Mr Lee reiterated that bilingualism remains a key strength for Singapore and that early exposure to mother tongue languages is crucial.
“It gives us a cultural ballast and richness in our identity. And from a utilitarian, pragmatic point of view, it connects us with the region and the world,” he said.
He added that as a largely English-speaking environment, schools must be deliberate in supporting the use of mother tongue languages.
“When you start young, we have a better chance of that following us all through life.”
-
Funding & Business1 week agoKayak and Expedia race to build AI travel agents that turn social posts into itineraries
-
Jobs & Careers1 week ago
Mumbai-based Perplexity Alternative Has 60k+ Users Without Funding
-
Mergers & Acquisitions1 week ago
Donald Trump suggests US government review subsidies to Elon Musk’s companies
-
Funding & Business1 week ago
Rethinking Venture Capital’s Talent Pipeline
-
Jobs & Careers1 week ago
Why Agentic AI Isn’t Pure Hype (And What Skeptics Aren’t Seeing Yet)
-
Education1 day ago9 AI Ethics Scenarios (and What School Librarians Would Do)
-
Jobs & Careers1 week ago
Astrophel Aerospace Raises ₹6.84 Crore to Build Reusable Launch Vehicle
-
Funding & Business5 days ago
Sakana AI’s TreeQuest: Deploy multi-model teams that outperform individual LLMs by 30%
-
Funding & Business1 week agoFrom chatbots to collaborators: How AI agents are reshaping enterprise work
-
Education2 days ago
Nursery teachers to get £4,500 to work in disadvantaged areas
