Jelgava municipality introduces AI platform in all schools

Jelgava municipality has become the first in Latvia to introduce an artificial intelligence platform for teachers in all of its schools, LSM reported. The tool helps prepare teaching materials, assignments and tests, and immediately shows how students performed.

Created by Latvian education technology company Datorium, the platform is designed for teachers and adapted to Latvia’s education curriculum. It includes all school subjects for grades one to 12.

“A teacher can prepare for and conduct a lesson on this platform. It includes teaching materials, presentations, worksheets, practical tasks, various differentiated assignments and tasks using an interactive conversation bot,” Datorium head Anžela Džafarova said.

Jelgava is the first municipality in Latvia to introduce the solution in all its schools. Introducing and maintaining the programme in 15 schools will cost the municipality 20,000 euros a year.

“There was perhaps not much enthusiasm initially, but we are working to encourage people. At present, 321 of the 400 teachers have been trained in this field,” said Kristīne Strūberga, head of the Jelgava Municipality Education Department.

The platform’s developers say its main benefit is the time it saves. Based on feedback from teachers, using artificial intelligence can save an average of four to five hours a week.

Ivita Saldava, head of Kalnciems Secondary School, said the benefits outweighed the initial stress of adopting a new tool. “In a couple of minutes, you can create everything needed for a lesson, and that makes teachers’ work easier,” she said.

In a Latvian language lesson, eighth-grade students at Kalnciems Secondary School conversed with artificial intelligence. The teacher sets the topic and tasks in advance, and the student cannot deviate from them.