Education secretary Bridget Phillipson will set out plans today to “take up this great new technological era to modernise our education system, back our teachers and deliver for our children.”

Delivering a keynote address at edtech event The Bett Show in London, the minister will tell the delegation how teaching will be “revolutionised” by the way the sector engages with tech at each stage.

From knowing what tech to buy through to teacher training and classroom usage, the education secretary will lay out a raft of new measures to help drive rising standards in education and cut costly- and time-consuming processes via technology.

“The world of even five years ago is gone forever, now we must seize the opportunities of the future,” Phillipson is expected to say today.

“We can hope for a brighter future for our children – delivered by a digital revolution in education.

“I will take up this great new technological era to modernise our education system, to back our teachers and to deliver better life chances for our children across the country.”

What Does the Department for Education Have In Store?
To be discussed is the “Plan Technology for Your Schools” service, which aims to help schools prioritise where to invest tech, based on a personalised assessment of their needs.

The Department for Education has already outlined that the service focuses on essential technology and ensures that schools are compliant with digital standards.

This is in addition to a new “EdTech Evidence Board.” The pilot will be delivered by the Chartered College of Teaching to explore how to effectively build evidence of AI products that work well, helping education settings feel confident that they’re choosing products that work well for them and for their classrooms.

Amid the continuing advancement of AI, it will also be announced today that leading global tech firms have jointly committed to making AI tools for education safer by design.

Microsoft, Google, Amazon Web Services, and Adobe are among the firms who have developed a set of expectations AI tools should meet to be considered safe for classroom use.

The “AI Product Safety Expectations in Education” framework sets out clear technical safeguards, including prioritising child-centred design and enhanced filtering of harmful content.

The education department has already noted that it “represents the most detailed set of safety expectations for AI in education anywhere in the world.”

The conference will also hear how the department plans to use tech to improve outcomes for vulnerable pupils: For the first time, all new teachers will be trained on the effective use of assistive technology to support children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Evidence shows that using readily-available, low-cost technology such as dictation tools or text-to-speech software is a key part of high-quality teaching for SEND pupils.

That said, only 13% of teachers received training on accessibility features between 2021 and 2023.

A pilot of the assistive technology training in mainstream schools however found “staggering benefits,” with over eight out of ten teachers and school staff surveyed saying their students’ independence, confidence, and engagement improved.

Additional measures are set to be announced by the education secretary later today.

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Today’s announcement closely follows the government announcing sweeping changes to harness the benefits of tech to transform public services, using new technologies to “usher in a decade of renewal and saving the taxpayer billions in efficiency savings.”