Education is entering its biggest transformation in a generation
Artificial intelligence, changing labour markets, demographic pressure and persistent inequality are forcing schools and universities to rethink what students should learn, and what education is ultimately for.
FOSTER! NEWS | EDUCATION
18 SEPTEMBER 2026
THE CLASSROOM IS CHANGING FASTER THAN THE CURRICULUM
For generations, education was built around a relatively stable idea: teachers possessed knowledge, students acquired it, and examinations measured how much had been retained.
That model is now under pressure.
Artificial intelligence can write, translate, explain, summarise, generate images, analyse information and solve increasingly complex problems in seconds. Digital platforms can personalise learning. Online resources can make knowledge available far beyond the walls of a school.
But the technological revolution is exposing a deeper question:
If information is becoming abundant, what exactly should education teach?
The answer could determine how prepared an entire generation is for the world that is emerging.
AI HAS ENTERED THE CLASSROOM
The debate is no longer theoretical.
The OECD's Digital Education Outlook 2026 reports that 37% of lower-secondary teachers surveyed had used AI for their work in 2024, while 72% believed AI could harm academic integrity by allowing students to present machine-generated work as their own.
The technology is therefore creating two very different possibilities.
AI can act as a tutor, assistant or learning partner when it is used with a clear educational purpose.
But simply asking a chatbot to complete an assignment may improve the final product without improving the student's understanding.
The OECD warns that successfully completing a task with generative AI does not automatically mean that learning has taken place.
That distinction could become one of the defining educational questions of the decade.
THE HOMEWORK PROBLEM HAS BECOME A LEARNING PROBLEM
For decades, teachers could reasonably assume that a student's written work reflected a substantial part of the student's own thinking.
That assumption is becoming harder to maintain.
A student can now produce an essay, solve a mathematical problem or prepare a presentation with assistance from an AI system.
The question is no longer simply:
"Did the student complete the assignment?"
It is:
"What did the student actually learn while completing it?"
This is forcing schools to reconsider assessment itself.
Written homework may become less important. Oral examinations, classroom discussion, practical projects, collaborative work and supervised problem-solving could become more significant.
Education may have to measure reasoning rather than simply measuring output.
THE TEACHER IS NOT DISAPPEARING
The arrival of AI has generated predictions that technology could eventually replace large parts of teaching.
The evidence does not point to such a simple transition.
The OECD's 2026 work on teaching argues that the transformation of education requires more than technological adoption and places emphasis on teacher autonomy, trust, collaboration and professional development.
A machine can provide information.
A teacher can interpret a student's confusion.
A machine can generate an explanation.
A teacher can recognise when the explanation has not actually been understood.
That human relationship remains difficult to reproduce through software.
THE NEW DIVIDE MAY NOT BE ACCESS TO AI
For years, the digital divide was largely understood as a question of who had a computer, a reliable internet connection or a smartphone.
The next divide could be more complicated.
It may concern who knows how to use AI effectively.
The OECD's latest PISA findings show that AI use for schoolwork is already widespread in many participating countries. Yet opportunities to learn how to evaluate AI-generated information are not distributed equally, with more advantaged students reporting such opportunities more frequently.
That creates a possible new inequality.
Two students may have access to the same AI system.
But they may not have the same teachers, digital skills, family support, connectivity or ability to recognise when the machine is wrong.
Technology can therefore reduce one educational gap while creating another.
THE WORLD STILL HAS A BASIC EDUCATION PROBLEM
The AI revolution is taking place alongside a much older challenge: millions of children and young people still do not have reliable access to quality education.
UNESCO's 2026 Global Education Monitoring Report focuses on access and equity and examines how countries have progressed over the past 25 years in participation and disparities linked to factors including sex, location, wealth and disability.
The global picture is therefore deeply uneven.
Some classrooms are experimenting with generative AI.
Others still face shortages of teachers, infrastructure, learning materials or basic connectivity.
This creates an extraordinary contradiction.
The future of education is arriving at radically different speeds.
EDUCATION IS ALSO FACING A FINANCIAL CRISIS
Technology is not the only pressure.
Education systems require sustained investment, yet many countries are facing competing fiscal demands.
UNESCO reported in July 2026 that 113 countries spend more on debt servicing than on education, while international aid to education could fall by as much as 30% between 2023 and 2027.
That matters because educational transformation requires more than software.
It requires teachers.
Schools.
Training.
Connectivity.
Buildings.
Libraries.
Research.
And time.
A technologically advanced education system cannot be built simply by purchasing AI subscriptions.
THE QUESTION OF WHAT CHILDREN SHOULD LEARN
The traditional curriculum was largely constructed around disciplines that remained relatively stable for generations.
Mathematics.
Science.
History.
Languages.
Literature.
Geography.
Those subjects remain important.
But the environment surrounding them is changing.
Students increasingly need to understand how to evaluate information, recognise manipulation, work with technology, communicate, collaborate and solve unfamiliar problems.
UNESCO has argued that education systems need to rethink learning in response to rapid technological and social change, while maintaining education as a human-centred public good.
The challenge is not simply adding "AI" to the curriculum.
It is reconsidering how the entire curriculum prepares people for a world in which machines can perform an expanding range of cognitive tasks.
THE UNIVERSITY IS ALSO BEING TESTED
Higher education faces a similar transformation.
Universities are no longer the only places where people can access advanced knowledge.
A motivated student can now access lectures, research papers, tutorials, programming environments, language tools and AI tutors from almost anywhere.
But universities still perform functions that technology cannot easily replace.
They provide research communities.
Laboratories.
Professional networks.
Academic standards.
Peer interaction.
Mentorship.
And credentials recognised by employers and institutions.
The question is therefore not whether universities will disappear.
It is whether their role will change.
EDUCATION IS BECOMING A LIFELONG PROCESS
One of the biggest changes may occur outside traditional classrooms.
Technological change means that skills acquired at 20 may not remain sufficient at 40.
Workers may need to retrain repeatedly.
Entire professions may change.
Some occupations may disappear while others emerge.
Education could therefore become less concentrated in childhood and early adulthood.
The distinction between education and employment may become increasingly blurred.
Learning may become something people return to throughout their lives rather than something they are expected to complete before entering the workforce.
THE HUMAN SKILLS QUESTION
The more capable machines become, the more valuable certain human capabilities may become.
Judgement.
Curiosity.
Creativity.
Communication.
Empathy.
Leadership.
Ethical reasoning.
The ability to work with other people.
None of these guarantees economic success on its own.
But they represent areas where education can develop capabilities that are not simply about memorising information.
The central challenge is therefore not to make students compete against machines.
It is to teach them how to think in a world where machines are increasingly capable of thinking with them.
THE SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE MAY LOOK VERY DIFFERENT
The classroom of 2035 may still contain desks, books and teachers.
But the educational experience surrounding them could be radically different.
Students could work with AI tutors.
Teachers could use data to identify learning difficulties earlier.
Assignments could become more interactive.
Virtual laboratories could expand access to experiments.
Language learning could become increasingly conversational and personalised.
Universities could combine physical campuses with global digital classrooms.
And assessment could shift from reproducing information towards demonstrating understanding.
The technology is already moving in this direction.
The institutional transformation is only beginning.
THE GREAT RISK IS NOT TECHNOLOGY — IT IS USING IT WITHOUT A PURPOSE
The central question facing education systems is therefore not:
"Should schools use AI?"
It is:
"What should AI be used for?"
The OECD's evidence points to an important distinction: generative AI can support learning when guided by sound teaching principles, while poorly designed use can outsource cognitive work without producing genuine learning gains.
That distinction could separate meaningful educational transformation from technological theatre.
A school does not become innovative simply because it owns tablets.
A university does not become future-ready simply because its students use AI.
Technology becomes educationally valuable only when it improves the process of learning.
FOSTER! ANALYSES
Education is approaching a decisive moment.
Artificial intelligence is changing the relationship between knowledge, teachers and students. Demographic changes are altering the demand for skills. Labour markets are evolving. Inequality continues to shape who has access to quality education. And governments are being asked to transform systems that were largely designed for another era.
The most important question may therefore not be whether technology will change education.
It already is.
The real question is whether education systems will change deliberately — or whether technology, economic pressure and social change will force the transformation upon them.
The classroom of the future will not simply be more digital.
It may have to become more human.
Because when information becomes almost limitless, the most valuable thing education can teach may no longer be how to find an answer — but how to understand it, question it and decide what to do with it.
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