A decision to permit pupils to use ChatGPT as a source for essays has been condemned for sacrificing “intellectual rigour to an algorithm” by a senior teacher at one of the country’s most prestigious public schools.
Jonathan Marchant, deputy head (academic) at Fettes College, said he was surprised by the International Baccalaureate (IB) move, especially because the foundation behind it had always valued communication and research skills.
These help students to learn by encouraging them to take intellectual and creative risks in the organisation of their ideas, he said. “These skills are honed through drafting, editing and reflection. In the humanities, sifting through information to evolve an argument is far more about the learning process than the outcome,” he wrote in The Times.
