Letters to the editor - October 27, 2024

Vehicle annual licence tax

The vehicle annual licence tax can be very expensive, in some cases €762 or even more.

This tax is unfair on retired senior citizens who use their car very little during the year. I am retired and I have covered only 218 miles over a period of two years.

Senior citizens who drive their car for a few miles every year are not contributing to traffic congestion or to emissions. It is time for such people to be assisted. Thanks to the service introduced by local councils, senior citizens are also spared medical and health visits through the free transport system for senior citizens.

At present, no distinction is being made between young people who are on the road every day and retired senior citizens who use their car very little during the year.

The annual licence tax should be based on the amount of mileage covered during the year.

ALFRED FARRUGIA – Attard

Rethinking homework in the AI era

Although homework is considered necessary to reinforce the learning done at school, many educators have questioned whether such work or assignments are being done by the student without any assistance.

For years, we suspected that parents, guardians or grandparents may have helped a student during homework. Attributing the work to the student was always questionable.

AI will be part of the teaching and learning process. PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

However, students now have a super parent, guardian or grandparent at their command: artificial intelligence. This development may completely change the concept of homework carried out by students. Undoubtedly, educators need to adapt and seek ways to come to terms with this development.

Artificial intelligence is already present on our devices and is easily accessible by students. It isn’t perfect, as the ‘learning’ process of the technology is ongoing, but it has evolved considerably over the past years. Ask a question to someone with such devices and within minutes they will have a reply generated by AI.

So, the question now is whether teachers are going to assess work produced by AI. Some teachers are probably unknowingly already doing it. They may find, for example, that their students have improved in their choice of words or writing skills.

Distinguishing between work produced by a student and AI is certainly not easy. Furthermore, we cannot expect teachers to be investigators by going through the text produced with a magnifying glass. This would be impossible to manage.

AI is a new development but is not a new situation faced by educators. We passed through the introduction of calculators many years ago and students rarely followed their teachers’ instructions not to use these devices.

We found a way to use calculators during mathematics lessons and nowadays no one believes that calculators hinder students’ understanding or work.

Banning students from using AI is unthinkable and if such a policy was adopted most would simply ignore it.

Embracing the technology is the only solution. We need instead to rethink the homework and assignments given to students and start using AI tools in the classroom.

Homework will still be provided to students. It will be reshaped and its assessment will be rethought.

AI will be part of the teaching and learning process. Only through this approach will homework remain relevant and attributable to the student and not to AI.

MARCO BONNICI – president, Malta Union of Teachers, Ħamrun