Top 5 Jobs in Education That Are Most at Risk from AI in Solomon Islands - And How to Adapt

As artificial intelligence - tools that can do image analysis, speech recognition and OCR - moves into schools, Solomon Islands educators must reckon with both disruption and practical gains; Google Cloud's primer on AI explains how these systems learn from data and automate repetitive tasks, which threatens roles that centre on routine marking and content assembly while creating chances to scale local support.

In the Solomon Islands context, AI can generate accessible, local‑language materials and inclusive lesson prompts to help underserved students (inclusive education prompts for Solomon Islands Ministry of Education) and power adaptive learning engines that personalize instruction across urban and rural classrooms.

Practical reskilling matters: a focused program like Nucamp's Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp (15 Weeks) teaches prompt design and workplace AI skills educators can use to stay relevant while improving access to quality learning.

“The model is just predicting the next word. It doesn't understand,” explains Rayid Ghani.

To identify which education roles in Solomon Islands are most exposed to AI disruption, the analysis mapped common AI capabilities - automating routine marking, generating lesson content and spotting student response patterns - from ACER's review of AI in education against local readiness and policy signals: ICT access, teacher digital skills and MEHRD targets.

This meant cross-referencing evidence that AI can reduce time spent on repetitive tasks and enable adaptive feedback with on‑the‑ground data from the Solomon Islands technology profile, including the striking finding that more than 80% of teachers reported having no access to digital resources and the MEHRD aim to equip 50 secondary schools with devices by 2023.

Local use cases and mitigations - such as inclusive, local‑language prompts and adaptive learning engines highlighted in Nucamp's guidance - were layered on top of these indicators to prioritise jobs where routine tasks are substantial, infrastructure gaps raise equity risks, and teacher reskilling would most reduce displacement.

The result is a risk ranking grounded in both AI capability and Solomon Islands realities, with adaptation strategies tied to the country's ICT Master Plan and existing distance‑learning policies (see ACER analysis and the Solomon Islands technology profile for details).

“The role of AI should be to support and augment, rather than replace human intelligence.”

Primary school teachers in the Solomon Islands face clear exposure to AI: tools that can automate routine marking, generate lesson content and deliver adaptive feedback threaten time‑heavy classroom tasks, but the risk here is not only job loss - it's the chance to widen existing gaps when

more than 80% of teachers

report no access to digital resources, a striking practical barrier that's like asking a pianist to perform without a piano.

ACER's review makes the trade‑offs plain: AI can boost personalised learning and reduce administrative load, yet teachers need agency, training and safeguards to prevent inequity; nearly half of Pacific teachers reported no recent ICT professional development, so investment in teacher digital skills is essential.

Practical adaptation for primary classrooms in Solomon Islands calls for co‑designing AI as an assistant rather than a replacement, building teacher‑focused PD in prompt design and classroom integration, and using inclusive, local‑language prompts and low‑cost delivery channels so tech reaches rural students - see suggested inclusive prompts for the Ministry of Education - and piloting adaptive learning engines to close urban–rural gaps while protecting privacy and teacher roles.

Secondary school teachers in Solomon Islands face a twin challenge: AI can sharply reduce time spent on routine tasks - marking quizzes, drafting parent letters and formatting reports - but without clear policies, training and infrastructure those savings risk deepening inequity between urban and rural schools.

Practical guidance from England's DfE, reported by the BBC, already recommends using AI for “low‑stakes” marking while insisting on transparency and manual checks, a caution that matters where connectivity and device access are uneven; educators must be able to verify outputs and guard student data.

At the same time, classroom leaders can follow pragmatic examples for cutting workload - automating templates, using targeted prompt techniques and treating AI as an assistant so teachers reclaim time for relationship‑building and differentiation.

Local adaptation could combine Nucamp‑style adaptive learning tools that personalise instruction across sparse networks with teacher upskilling in prompt design and tool selection, ensuring AI frees teachers to mentor, not replace, and that policy frameworks require approved tools and clear reporting to parents.

The payoff is concrete: replace an afternoon spent chasing paperwork with structured mentoring that helps struggling teens catch up, rather than simply faster grading.

"AI can come up with made-up quotes, facts [and] information," she said.

Private tutors in the Solomon Islands are at a crossroads: a booming global market - valued in the tens to hundreds of billions and forecast to grow strongly - means powerful AI‑driven platforms can scale one‑to‑one support, but that same scale risks undercutting local tutors where connectivity and cash are scarce.

Global reports show rapid expansion of online and AI‑assisted tutoring (see market snapshots from Polaris Market Research private tutoring market report (2021–2030 forecast) and Research and Markets private tutoring market forecast (2024–2033)), yet reports also warn higher fees and access gaps limit reach in poorer economies - a blunt reality where more than 80% of local teachers report no digital resources.

For Solomon Islands tutors the smart move is adaptation: specialise in culturally relevant, small‑group coaching, combine face‑to‑face trust with low‑bandwidth AI aides, and learn prompt design and tool‑checks so technology becomes an assistant, not a replacement; Nucamp's inclusive prompts and adaptive‑learning guidance offer practical templates for local‑language materials and low‑cost delivery (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work inclusive education prompts and adaptive‑learning templates).

Think of it this way: a local tutor who pairs community rapport with simple AI tools can feel less like a busker drowned out by a stadium PA and more like the conductor who leads the choir the tech helps amplify.

Examination markers in Solomon Islands face a clear two-sided reality: automated systems can shave the 5–10 hours a week teachers commonly spend on grading, but without careful choices they risk replacing nuanced human judgement and widening inequity where

more than 80% of teachers lack digital resources

Practical adaptation starts with matching tools to context - use offline-friendly OMR and scan apps for large MCQ papers (ZipGrade, Akindi) and reserve AI essay‑scoring as a speed‑up with human oversight, following Cambridge's advice to keep a

human in the loop

and publish how scores are derived.

LLM‑based short‑answer grading shows promise - GPT‑4 can be highly precise on fully correct answers - but studies warn of variability on partial answers and bias unless rubrics and confidence thresholds are strong, so markers should learn to review flagged scripts, co‑design high‑quality keys, and run randomized human checks.

Pilot hybrid workflows where connectivity allows (Gradescope or Edulastic for connected schools), embed data‑privacy and integrity rules, and train marker teams in tool audits and prompt checks so AI becomes a trusted assistant rather than a substitute - otherwise automated grading is like handing exam scripts to a photocopier and expecting it to judge character.

School Administrative Officers (SAOs) are on the frontline where AI meets paper‑based practice: automated reporting, attendance analytics and digital asset logs can cut weeks of filing into hours, but in Solomon Islands those gains risk amplifying inequality unless device management, power and data skills are in place.

MEHRD's 2019–23 MEHRD ICT in Education Master Plan (Solomon Islands) and the national guidance on school ICT show the path - targets to equip secondary schools and clear expectations that principals appoint an ICT coordinator - but reality on the ground still leaves many schools juggling devices, timetables and paper records.

Practical pivots for SAOs include owning the asset register and booking system named in the suggested ICT School Policy and Readiness (Solomon Islands), leading SIEMIS data training so reports are accurate and auditable (Honiara leader trainings are a model), and running low‑bandwidth solutions from the ICT For Better Education (ICT4BE playbook) (KioKit offline kits, RapidPro/SMS shortcodes) so remote schools stay connected.

Think of it this way: an automated dashboard is only useful if someone in the office knows which device is charged and booked for the day - SAOs who pair data literacy with device stewardship turn automation from a threat into a time‑saving, equity‑boosting tool.

Preparing Solomon Islands' educators for an AI-driven future means moving from hopeful headlines to hard, practical steps: Minister Tozen Leokana's call underscores national momentum, but ACER's finding that more than 80% of local teachers lack digital resources shows why policy, pilots and people-focused training must lead implementation; the MEHRD ICT Master Plan gives a blueprint for devices, teacher competencies and distance‑learning channels, yet success will hinge on co‑design, data safeguards and scalable teacher professional learning so AI serves as an assistant, not a replacement.

Practical next steps include targeted upskilling in prompt design and classroom integration, low‑bandwidth adaptive learning pilots to bridge urban–rural gaps, clear data‑privacy rules, and school‑level device stewardship - small interventions that can turn AI from an empty promise into everyday help (without devices, AI is like a radio with no batteries).

For educators and administrators seeking structured reskilling, a focused option is Nucamp's 15‑week AI Essentials for Work program; see the MEHRD coverage and ACER guidance for the balance between ambition and teacher agency.

“AI is not a distance concept: it's here”

“The role of AI should be to support and augment, rather than replace human intelligence.”