Do you know your children's school rules on AI use?

Do you know the rules your children's school has for AI use? If not, it's a smart idea to ask now.

Last week, the annual survey by Ouders & Onderwijs (Parents & Education) showed that three quarters of parents have no idea about the AI policy at school. That is, at the very least, inconvenient, given that around 90% of secondary school pupils use AI for schoolwork.

The same study also found that parents not only want to know the rules, but also want to know what the school is doing to teach critical use of AI. Now you might think: but parents can do that themselves, can't they? Some can, but far from everyone. And that's why it seems to me certainly helpful if schools are more open about this.

In short, make AI policy, also from a parent's perspective, something you can discuss. You are clearly not alone in this.

PS One of our sons is about to move from primary to secondary school. The fun thing is: I already know the new school's policy, although honestly that's not because I followed my own tip above, but "by chance", in a conversation with the dyslexia coordinator.

"Does he need help with long texts?", she asked. "No," I said, "because he uses NotebookLM for that. The texts are delivered beautifully tailored and as audio." "Oh," she said, "but AI is banned at our school."

PPS I had some thoughts about that, of course. But now that I've read the Ouders & Onderwijs survey, I know I can just be a little happy: apparently I'm the exception who doesn't have to guess at the rules. ;-)