MacPHERSON: Most Canadian teachers navigating AI without training

Most teachers say they haven’t been trained to detect AI use.

Published Jun 23, 2026  •  Last updated 37 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

An image of AI text and data over schoolchildren and a teacher. Photo by vectorfusionart /Adobe Stock

Many Canadian middle and high school students likely use artificial intelligence (AI) when they do homework. In the classroom, teachers also use AI. Yet, according to a new survey of Canadian teachers in Grades 6 to 12 — in every province, in both government-run public schools and independent schools — teachers are navigating this generational shift alone, in a policy vacuum.

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Specifically, 63.6% of teachers say their “school or school board” has not “provided any training on how to instruct students on using AI reasonably.” Only 42.3% of teachers say their school “has a policy on the use of AI for students.” And 64.7% say their school and/or board has not “provided any training or tools for them as a teacher to help in identifying students using AI.”

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Given how easy it is for AI to substitute human thinking, research and writing, these are shocking numbers.

This is not a theoretical problem in the future. Students — at least in high school and post-secondary schools — use AI for school. According to 2025 survey data in the United States, more than eight in 10 high schoolers used AI to assist in their homework; an annual KPMG survey in 2025 showed that 73% of Canadian post-secondary students (aged 18 and up) used AI for schoolwork. And according to a 2025 Toronto Metropolitan University survey, two-thirds of Canadians have experimented with AI tools.

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Generative AI — which creates new content including text and images — is now built into social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and generates results on Google searches. According to a survey by the CBC’s media monitor, 72% of Canadian teenagers are aware of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and one in four said they used these tools at least monthly (and that was back in 2024; light-years ago in terms of AI usage and popularity).

In other words, it’s highly likely that many Canadian middle and high school students use AI to help with homework (and perhaps in the classroom, depending on phone and computer usage policies in individual schools and classrooms). But again, most teachers say they haven’t even been trained to detect AI use.

Of course, some reasonable people say AI is the future, and young people should know how to use it. However, if we encourage students to speed down the information highway, guardrails should constrain and guide their use.

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At the same time, if teachers choose to use AI, they should be educated on how to harness its benefits to improve rather than hamper classroom instruction. Yet according to the new Leger survey, only 34.8% of Canadian teachers say their school has a policy for AI use for staff, and only 49.3% say their “school or board provided training on how to best use AI for class lessons and other in-class materials,” while 46.8% report no training at all.

There are significant concerns with AI use in education, primarily that these tools will diminish the ability of students to think, read, write and analyze material. The effects of AI on society — including schools — continue to evolve, but clearly things have changed. As this school year winds down, policymakers should understand that, going forward, teachers require training to help navigate this change. Thus far, it seems, Canadian schools and school boards haven’t caught up.

Paige MacPherson is a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute

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