Primary schools experiment with AI under ‘guard rails’; parents cautious about open-source models

SINGAPORE - In her Primary 5 and 6 classes, an English language teacher, 45, has been using artificial intelligence over the past three years to help her pupils write better compositions.

Called SchoolAI, the AI-powered educational platform is able to guide her pupils, prompting them with questions to think creatively as they dig deeper into character dilemmas and plot twists, before they put pen to paper.

Singapore teachers like her have been experimenting with different AI teaching assistants or other tools to help in learning, amid growing attention on the role of AI in education.

In primary schools, however, this has been met with some uncertainty as parents of younger children remain cautious about the potential effects of introducing these tools too early.

Education Minister Desmond Lee had said earlier in 2026 that AI will be gradually introduced from Primary 4.

This is done under close supervision and with “low exposure”, with priority given to learning the fundamentals, he said at The Straits Times Education Forum on April 1.

Shortly after, Ms Liew Wei Li, director-general of education at the Ministry of Education (MOE), addressed parental concerns in a LinkedIn post, assuring them that guard rails are in place.

Schools use specially selected AI tools with specific features for learning tasks and only with teacher supervision for this age group on the Singapore Student Learning Space (SLS), she said. SLS is an online learning portal by MOE for use in schools.

As AI becomes increasingly pervasive, she said it is better that schools teach pupils to use AI well “rather than leave it to chance and the open internet”.

Ms Liew added that pupils learn how AI works and how to use it responsibly, along with why the process of learning, which includes struggling and persevering, is important.

Teachers interviewed said they set guard rails or parameters including programming the chatbot not to allow pupils to stray from the topic, not to give them immediate answers, or not to let pupils access information other than what is needed for the lesson.

The English language teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the AI tool she uses does not give pupils answers, but uses probing questions and suggestions to guide their learning. She refers to this process as Socratic questioning.

“It’s about getting into the habit of thinking. The AI won’t write the story for them, but it prompts them to ask if this is the choice the character would make, and adds layers to the story,” she said.

The tool also flags those who are struggling or going off-task, allowing the teacher to intervene where she is needed most.

“This tool is like an assistant that can have conversations to guide pupils as they generate ideas for their stories, because it’s not practical for me to do it one to one,” she said.

Pupils like this interaction as they get instant feedback while developing their storylines, instead of having to wait for her to mark their work.

Considered an early adopter of such technology, she said her school’s focus for professional development of teachers this year is on AI literacy.

When asked if she informs parents about the AI tools she uses during lessons, she said she has not done so, but believes the children have told them.

Cautious about AI

Parents who were interviewed said they are unsure if their children use AI in school, though they are not entirely closed off to the idea if safeguards are in place.

They know that the AI tools on the SLS platform will not expose their children to unregulated content.

Among the nine parents whom ST spoke to, most raised concerns about consumer AI tools like ChatGPT, fearing overreliance and its impact on children’s critical thinking skills.

Some also said they are already grappling with limiting the amount of screen time children have from an early age, which adds to their reservations about increased technology use for learning.

One parent, who declined to be named, said her Primary 5 son’s mother tongue teacher assigned homework that required pupils to use ChatGPT earlier in 2026.

Pupils were tasked to use ChatGPT at home to generate ideas for their composition and clean up grammatical errors.

“We restrict his access to devices at home, and I was shocked that he was asked to use AI. He had never used it before and was unsure of what to do,” said the parent.

When she called the school to seek clarification, the teacher said she had been using the AI tool to encourage pupils to be more creative in generating ideas for their storylines.

“I am not comfortable with my son using ChatGPT unsupervised. I feel this is not the age; perhaps when he is a bit older or in secondary school,” said the mother.

Mr Ramesh Kumar, 47, who has three children in primary school, feels that young children should not be exposed to consumer AI tools where there are no safeguards to prevent access to inappropriate content.

At home, his Primary 5 twins, a boy and a girl, use Geniebook, an online learning platform that uses AI algorithms to customise learning.

“These models have guard rails, which permit what you can or cannot say, what you can and cannot do,” said the cybersecurity consultant.

Mr Ramesh, who also has a daughter in Primary 1, said schools should inform parents about how AI is used in lessons, so they are aware of what their children are exposed to.

AI used to benefit, not replace learning

An MOE spokesman said the ministry recognises that there are risks when young children use AI.

In response to queries from ST, the ministry said teachers receive training to discern when to use or not use AI, and that it is used only when it benefits rather than replaces learning.

Introduced gradually under close teacher supervision, the AI tools pupils are exposed to in primary school are not general-purpose ones, said the spokesman. The tools have been developed by MOE and are accessed through SLS.

MOE also provides educators with guidelines when using AI-enabled tools that are not on SLS, he said.

Every school can get help with education technology, or edtech, and AI from two officers from the MOE headquarters.

“At the end of their primary school education, students would have had the opportunities to learn about AI – be aware of AI’s presence, understand the risks posed by misinformation and inaccurate output,” said the spokesman.

He added that MOE will provide parents with more resources in guiding their children’s use of AI.

A teacher from another primary school told ST that, in recent years, AI has been used in upper primary classes in her school for different subjects. The teachers are not named as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

For example, in a social studies lesson, her colleague programmed an AI chatbot to take on the personas of historical figures like Lee Kuan Yew. Under the teacher’s supervision, pupils then interacted with these profiles to discuss their experiences during previous elections.

Such lessons allow for a more engaging learning experience, compared with reading about these figures in textbooks or articles, she said.

In a maths lesson, another teacher used an AI chatbot programmed with guard rails to help pupils deepen their learning on the topic of angles in triangles.

The chatbot asked pupils questions to assess their mastery of concepts and pace their learning accordingly.

In all these instances, the teacher said the AI tools used were either those integrated in SLS or whitelisted by MOE. They were used only when they added value to learning, she said, and under teacher supervision.

“You should not use AI or edtech tools just for the sake of using them, especially if it can be done just as well on pen and paper. It has to be meaningful, and guard rails have to be in place to ensure appropriate use,” she added.

Clarification note: This story has been updated for clarity.