AI can boost learning, teaching efficiency across region – Pres Ali at CXC Ministerial Summit

“Despite the challenges, we must remember that scientific progress is meant to be embraced, not feared. AI and other education technologies offer a range of opportunities that can transform how we teach and how students learn. The right digital solutions can improve access to education, especially for students in remote locations, and provide better learning opportunities for children with disabilities” – President Dr Irfaan Ali.

On the occasion of the Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC’s) 4th Ministerial Summit, President Dr. Irfaan Ali has stressed the need for the Caribbean region to use, not reject, new and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the classroom, where it can help not only students, but teachers as well.
In a virtual address to the summit, which got underway on Wednesday in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, President Ali has urged policy makers to emerge from the summit with ideas on how to further integrate technology in schools.
Noting the benefits AI can offer to students in order to make their learning more efficient and effective, and to teachers, in order to reduce the administrative burden often placed on them, the President said, “We must ensure that the Caribbean education system does not lag behind, but instead embraces the future that AI offers…
“AI can help reduce administrative burdens from teachers, and create a more engaging learning environment,” the Head of State has said.

Further, he pointed out that the Caribbean region already has to contend with the digital divide, and he pointed to the potential of AI to revolutionize learning and help educators tailor their teaching to students, in the process creating learning solutions that adapt to each student’s needs.
According to the President, the Caribbean region must come up with standards and guidelines that would ensure AI is put to use in a way that would redound to the region’s benefit.
While he acknowledged that challenges do exist with ensuring AI is not misused by students, such as those who may use this tool as a shortcut around genuine learning and development, President Ali is urging the region to be bold.
“Despite these challenges, we must remember that scientific progress is meant to be embraced, not feared. AI and other education technologies offer a range of opportunities that can transform how we teach and how students learn,” he advised.
“The right digital solutions can improve access to education, especially for students in remote locations, and provide better learning opportunities for children with disabilities,” President Ali added.

UG’s advances
During the summit, University of Guyana (UG) Vice Chancellor Professor Paloma Mohammed-Martin spoke on how the institution is integrating technology in learning. The Professor made reference to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), to improve the learning experience for those at the University.
Guyana’s poor pass rate in math at this year’s CXC had prompted the Government to launch a math intervention programme in schools last month. Education Minister Priya Manickchand has expressed confidence that, with the Government’s interventions, Guyana’s pass rate for Mathematics in 2025 would rise to at least 40%, compared to 34% in 2023 and 31% in 2024.
“We’re also working with a platform called Alpha. That is an augmented reality platform that we’re testing now; and this, of course, (is) the gaming technology that everyone is talking about. We’re testing it for several reasons, because, as our Minister would have said to you this morning, our country is very geographically diverse, and we have all kinds of people. You have people who are neuro-typical, neuro-divergent; you have people who are culturally very different, like Indigenous people, and so on. And we also have this math problem that we have been coping with in university,” Mohammed-Martin said.
According to the Professor, the way Alpha works is by using games to help the University understand how best to teach subjects such as math to atypical students.
A major component of this is also teaching people skills that require repetition.
“That data, the first set of data, is going to come out in a couple (of) months. We only started deploying this about four months ago, and so we don’t know enough yet, because we had to spend about eight months building the content. Because I wanted the content to be very Guyanese, very Caribbean, we used the platform and created the content, so we’ll be able to speak about that later on,” the Professor said.
It would not be the first time the University has gone innovative with its methods by integrating technology. As a matter of fact, Mohammed spoke of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy that the University has already developed for its students and staff. According to the educator, the development of the policy came about because students had already been using AI, something that caused pushback from staff, who as a consequence failed those students. This prompted lawsuits, resulting in UG outlining this policy. (G3)