The next new thing doing the rounds in the world today is automation and artificial intelligence. There are numerous blogs and articles out there that talk about automation, the positive and negative aspects of it, how automation is both providing and taking away jobs. One specific application of automation is in education, where robots are going to teach students. This is considered to be the next big thing in education. The question of whether robots can replace teachers is frequently being debated.
In this article, we will talk about whether robots can replace teachers and have a look at the pros and cons of robots entering the classroom space.
Robots are nothing more than pieces of metal, stuck together and operated by a set of codes. A teacher is a human being with all the six senses and someone who can both understand and interact. This forms the basic difference between the two and is also the distinguishing point for the question – can robots replace teachers?
Teachers can talk with students, interact with them, and respond with feelings. There will be empathy in the teacher’s voice and there will be ups and downs in the tone while teaching, whereas, in the case of a robot, a mechanical voice will become monotonous for the student. This reduces the attention span of the students. There is more to education than just reading and listening; it involves understanding and establishing an emotional connection with the students. We cannot expect empathy from robots because they are chips that function by lines of programming.
Similarly, while teachers take class, they will provide inputs to students based on their experience and share what they have seen during their career. However, this is not possible if robots were to replace teachers. Knowing which piece of knowledge to deliver when can be done brilliantly by teachers alone and there will be no replacement for it.
Also, robots are a piece of technology that can materialize into academics in the long run. And if they do enter the educational field, there are chances that they will disrupt the structure of academia. Along with cutting down the jobs of teachers, they will also crush a student’s dream to become a teacher. When students see that robots are teaching in schools, then there is no inspiration factor for students to make up their minds about teaching when making a career choice.
One side of the educational community might argue that recruiting excellent teachers with high teaching abilities is a daunting task for the whole of India. Instead, we can simply program one robot and the robot will function excellently and provide education to thousands of students. While it is true that we cannot have excellent teachers all over India, we have to acknowledge that an average-level teacher is better than a robot teaching in class. Students feel that learning from robots is simply googling the question and reading from the screen.
If we consider 2-tier and 3-tier cities and small villages, students do not have access to the basics of education and good quality facilities. If we try to allow a robot to enter that space, this will not aid in their education, rather it will worsen the situation. Bringing in robots in places where basic education itself is difficult is not a good idea and will not contribute to the growth of the school.
Moreover, there are technical failure risks associated with robots – if a robot malfunctions, it will take time to be reprogrammed and meanwhile, if there is no human teacher nearby, then that day of lessons is lost for the students. Also, with teachers, students will automatically feel respect and devote their attention to the class. In the case of robots, there is no respect factor in the picture and after a while, students will drop their attention in class.
That being said, we cannot completely ignore the advancement of technology and the benefits it has to offer. Robots can enter the educational sector to work together with teachers, rather than replace them in the field. They can be used as an assisting tool to support the functions of teachers and reduce their burden. Tasks such as correcting answer sheets, monitoring the class, administrative tasks, filing papers, moving around books and notebooks can be taken over by robots, as this will help teachers to focus on the core task at hand i.e., teaching students and clarifying doubts.
Robots and teachers can co-exist in a classroom and share responsibility with an aim to deliver quality education to students. The picture of robots and teachers functioning side-by-side in classrooms will become a reality in 15-20 years with pilot projects starting earlier than that. This will show us how effective and efficient classrooms will be.
