Are remote teachers and AI deepfakes the answer to recruitment issues?

Schools in the UK are trialling the use of deepfake teachers and even employing remote staff to deliver lessons hundreds of miles away from classrooms.

This situation emerges at a time when the use of artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly widespread in schools.

Government says AI has the power to transform educationand improve administrator workload, especially for teachers.

The BBC spoke to teachers, school leaders and unions who appear divided over what the future of classrooms in the UK should look like.

Emily Cooke is a maths teacher at The Valley Leadership Academy in Lancashire and has employed a virtual maths teacher – a decision Ms Cooke strongly opposed.

“Will your virtual teacher be there to dance with you at prom, hug your mom on results day, or high-five you in the hallway because they know you won the game last night?” he says.

Since September, top students in Years 9, 10 and 11 at Ms Cooke’s school have been taught by a remote maths teacher based 300 miles away in Devon.

Teachers went on strike last week and this week due to the move.

While the school said it was a “small-scale initiative”, the National Education Union (NEU) called it an “unacceptable situation”.

“As a parent, as a teacher, I don’t think the teacher-student relationship that is so important can be built or replicated through a screen,” Ms. Cooke says.

The school told the BBC its approach was “win-win”, with “pupils benefiting from lessons delivered online by an outstanding specialist teacher, supported by a second teacher in the classroom”.

At a different academy, AI experiments are going further than most.

Shane Ierston, chief executive of the Great Schools Trust, says it is his priority to provide children with a “world-class, world-class education” at his schools in Liverpool, Warrington and Bolton.

Mr Ierston believes that smart use of AI can free up teachers’ time to focus on developing students’ character, leadership and resilience.

Teachers there can already use the AI ​​system to mark assessments and give mock exams, which they say is more accurate.

Benjamin Barker, the foundation’s director of artificial intelligence, says AI technology can detect gaps in students’ learning and help teachers plan future lessons.

After marking, the AI ​​deepfake will create a custom feedback video for each child.

The technology is planned to be trialled this year before receiving feedback from staff, students and parents.

Mr Ierston says using AI “as an equalizer” will ensure that each child receives “personalized education” and that the teacher in the classroom can make sure they understand.

He added that having a deepfake would be “completely optional for teachers.”

“What we’re not trying to do is replace teachers,” Mr. Ierston says. “We are trying to use technology that has a bad reputation and see how it can be used to benefit society.

“This is the future.”

Deepfakes will also be used to help absent students catch up from home or to translate parent messages into 46 languages ​​spoken in schools.

Asked what he would say to those who oppose children interacting with deepfake technology, Mr Ierston says it is “natural” for people to fear change.

“But we would rather lead the change than have Silicon Valley do it for us,” he says.

“We know that the work we do centers around children and the right values.”

Nicola Burrows works for the charity and has a daughter called Lucy, who is in grade 11.

When asked about her thoughts on receiving feedback from Lucy’s teacher’s AI spoof, she says that “it would be really special to have this very special personalization with a face you recognize.”

But he adds that when it comes to new initiatives, including addressing safety concerns, “it’s really important that we bring parents along.”

Technology, screens and artificial intelligence in the classroom are divisive topics, especially among parents.

“I think it’s fair to say that parents are deeply skeptical about AI,” says Frank Young, chief policy officer at the charity Parentkind, a national charity that aims to give parents a say in education.

According to annual survey results from more than 5,000 parents answered in April this year, only 12% think AI should be used in the classroom.

“I think we can only get there if parents are reassured about how this AI will be used and how it will benefit children,” Mr. Young says.

There are no official figures on how many schools are using AI in the classroom with students, but Ofsted gathering evidence About how AI is being used in schools and FE colleges.

Data from survey tool Teacher Tapp, which asks thousands of teachers a series of questions every day, found that in October 2024, 31% of teachers said they had used AI to help them with their work in the past week. By October 2025, this rate increased to 58%.

John Roberts, chief executive of Oak National Academy, which provides DfE-funded lesson planning resources to teachers, says more than 40,000 teachers have used the experimental AI lesson planning tool since its launch in September last year.

Back in The Valley, Ms Cooke said she did not think online learning was as effective as face-to-face, noting there were “huge gaps” in learning from Covid at a time when schools were closed and millions of lessons were moved online.

“I thought we were trying to get young people away from screens instead of giving them five hours a week in math classes?” he says.

“The fear is that if we don’t stop this, if this isn’t challenged in the Valley, it will spread,” he says.

“So what will education be like in 20 years? So is there any harm in this?”

The academy spokesman said distance learning at the school was “incomparable” to teaching during the pandemic because it was “structured, supported and takes place in school”.

Recruiting remote teachers is said to be “a small-scale, targeted response to a national shortage of specialist mathematics teachers.” Our priority is and always will be to ensure that students receive the highest quality education.”

It says three virtual tutors are now used across the trust, “deployed in very specific situations where it is extremely difficult to recruit high-quality subject experts”.

The Department for Education says technology should be “carefully managed to enhance, not replace, the deep thinking, creativity and critical engagement that underpin effective learning.”

However, NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said that the union is against distance education and “the imposition of virtual teachers will never be tolerated”.

The trust responsible for The Valley says it is committed to working positively with colleagues at the NEU to resolve this issue.