By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Union of Teachers president Belinda Wilson has urged policymakers to confront the growing use of artificial intelligence in classrooms, warning that students are already relying on tools like ChatGPT while the government remains silent on the issue.

Speaking at the Rotary Club of West Nassau, Mrs Wilson said teachers, especially in English Language, have flagged homework assignments that appear generated by AI, with vocabulary, structure and ideas far above a student’s normal classroom performance.

“They also would note that the vocabulary that the student is using is not the normal, ordinary vocabulary that the students usually use in the classroom or when they taught them in previous years, the structure of their essay or their writings. It’s just they know that it’s not the way that they would have taught them in the class,” she said.

Some teachers, she added, have used AI tools to compare assignments with a student’s past work to confirm their suspicions.

Despite these concerns, Mrs Wilson said there has been no official engagement with educators.

“The Ministry of Education or no official from the Ministry of Education has ever even mentioned AI to me as the union leader, and teachers have not said that they have had any communication or interaction about AI,” she said. “We have not yet, as a union or as a government or as a Ministry of Education, even mentioned artificial intelligence and as stakeholders, I contend that we must start the conversation of artificial intelligence sooner than later.”

Mrs Wilson stressed she is not opposed to AI outright, calling it a useful tool if properly managed. “Chat GPT or AI is a tool, so you use the tool or use it in the proper manner. There’s nothing wrong with using it as a tool, but you take the information and you put it into your own words and you write it coming from you and not from AI,” she said.

Her comments follow confirmation last October from acting Education Director Dominique McCartney-Russell that officials were drafting a policy to guide AI use in schools. She said the policy would set rules for academic integrity, including citation, avoiding plagiarism, and discouraging cheating. She has not said publicly whether the policy was finalised.

“Students are using ChatGPT,” Mrs McCartney-Russell said at the time. “Our team members are using ChatGPT in the production or in the development of their lessons. Team members of the headquarters are also using ChatGPT. We did see an uptick in the use of AI, and so that’s why we said we need to put policies in.”

Teachers have seen AI’s impact particularly in language arts, with some reluctant to assign homework because of it. The issue has also reached higher education: University of The Bahamas professors have reported cases of students using AI for essays, online assignments, and even exams, according to Union of Tertiary Educators of The Bahamas president Daniel Thompson.