President Ramaphosa is right to emphasise that our ability to govern AI needs to keep pace with its development. In education, however, there is an additional urgency: AI is already in our classrooms.
South African teachers and learners are using these tools for teaching, learning and schoolwork, often while the guidance and safeguards around their use are still catching up.
South Africa’s 2024 Teaching and Learning International Survey found that 48% of South African lower-secondary teachers surveyed had already used AI in their work – above the OECD average of 36%.
A January 2026 FEDSAS survey of 99 educators in the Eastern Cape found that 90% of educators used free, general-purpose AI tools only, while only 4% of school staff said their school has an AI policy and only 16% felt school leadership was well equipped to guide them on AI.
For schools, responsible AI governance cannot simply be about regulating the technology. We need to ask whether these tools are appropriate for children, whether they protect learners’ data, whether they support rather than replace learning, and whether they risk deepening the inequalities that already exist in our education system.
General-purpose chatbots are not designed using educational approaches that intentionally deepen or build thinking.
A 2025 study found that 58% of chatbot interactions displayed sycophantic behaviour: the model tells users what they want to hear rather than what is true or accurate.
This is a known design flaw in general-purpose LLMs. It is troubling in any context. It becomes dangerous when children use these tools for companionship, emotional support, or as a trusted guide. A tool engineered to please is a poor and potentially harmful substitute for a trusted adult or peer.
We should not respond by shutting the door on AI. There are real opportunities to reduce teacher administrative workloads, support personalised learning and strengthen access to educational resources, including in multilingual contexts.
But these benefits will not happen automatically. We need locally relevant evidence, teacher support and safeguards that develop alongside the technology.”
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