Children are increasingly receiving life lessons from influencers or “AI-generated summaries”, the chief inspector of Ofsted will say.
Sir Martyn Oliver will argue that classroom learning with human interaction “has never been more important” as children are spending their lives online.
In a major speech at the Festival of Education, the Ofsted chief will say schools are places of “refuge”, connection, friendship and humanity for children.
Sir Martyn will tell the event at Wellington College, Berkshire: “Right now, many children live much of their lives online.
“Socially, they are never ‘off’ and always in touch with their friends.
“And they increasingly receive life lessons from influencers or AI-generated summaries.
“I would argue that the place of learning, real learning, classroom learning – with human interaction – has never been more important.”
The Ofsted boss will add: “In a way there’s something cloistered about living one’s life in a curated online environment.
“You may be able to find ‘the best that has been thought or said’ if you go looking for it.
“But who’s guiding you through it? Where’s the human connection? And of course, where’s the protection?”
His comments come amid calls from the Conservatives for the Government to bring in a statutory ban on smartphones in schools.
Schools in England were given non-statutory Government guidance in February last year intended to stop the use of phones during the school day.
Sir Martyn will say: “Schools have never just been places of learning.
“They were, and are places of safety, even refuge. Places of community and connection. Places of friendship and humanity.
“They are citadels of childhood: communities within communities looking after their own and helping children develop into well-rounded adults – capable of looking after others in turn.”
On Thursday, Sir Martyn will hit back at cynics who “decry the norms of education” and who say Ofsted enforces an “out-of-date, joyless system”.
In his speech, he will say: “For Ofsted, teaching a full, rich range of subjects isn’t just a nice to have, it’s fundamental to a great education.
“Music and art and sport aren’t add-ons to the core curriculum, they are some of the most important subjects to study, in terms of developing a child’s awareness of the world around them.
“And in a more macro sense, feeding into the cultural evolution of our country and pushing civilisation on.”
