AI can transform learning, but human skills remain essential — Dahl

James Dahl, Master of Wellington College, a British independent school founded in the 1850s, speaks with Ruth Imafidon and Charles Ogwo about the network’s expansion into Africa, the partnership with Rendeavour to establish Wellington College International Lagos, and the importance of preparing young people for a changing world without compromising their cultural identity or essential human qualities. The school is scheduled to open in Alaro City in September 2027. Excerpts.

Wellington College has built its reputation over more than 170 years. What gives an institution with that history the confidence to make a long-term commitment to Nigeria, and what opportunity do you see here?

To understand why we are coming to Nigeria, it helps to go back to Wellington College’s beginnings. When Queen Victoria and Prince Albert founded the school in the 1850s, their ambition was to establish a pioneering institution with an outward-looking, global perspective. Our first headmaster was sent around the world to meet educational leaders and learn from the best schools and colleges. That spirit of curiosity, innovation, and international engagement has been part of Wellington’s DNA from the outset.

Around 20 years ago, we began translating that philosophy into a global family of schools, starting in China. The network has since expanded to Thailand, India, Indonesia and, more recently, San Francisco. Our international presence continues to grow, but Africa has been an ambition for some time.

Nigeria stood out for several reasons. It is vibrant, creative and ambitious, with a large youth population and an extraordinary cultural and educational heritage. Equally significant was the opportunity to partner with Rendeavour on its development of Alaro City. We found an organisation with a remarkable vision and an ambition that closely aligns with our own.

For us, the opportunity is to bring together the best of Nigerian culture and history with what a Wellington College education can offer. Why wouldn’t we want to be part of that?

We are immensely proud that our first school in Africa will open in Lagos, with a second planned for Kenya the following year.

Nigeria has one of the world’s largest and youngest populations. UNFPA has reported that 63 per cent of its population is under 25, with a median age of around 18.6 years. As Nigeria’s economy evolves, what role can education play in turning this demographic potential into long-term prosperity, and where does Wellington College International Lagos fit into that picture?

I hope Wellington College International Lagos will contribute in several important ways. The first is by providing an outstanding international education that remains deeply rooted in Nigerian culture and identity. We want our students to achieve excellent examination results and develop a global, service-minded outlook, while maintaining a strong connection to their communities and heritage.

The modern workplace is increasingly international. Young people will collaborate, lead, and work alongside people from different cultures, both online and in person. They need the confidence to engage with the wider world without losing sight of where they come from. That combination of global perspective and local identity is fundamental to what we want to achieve.

The second contribution is preparing young people for a future that is changing more rapidly than ever before. Academic excellence remains essential. Students must have strong foundations in mathematics, languages, history, and other disciplines. But we must also consider the world they will enter as adults, particularly the impact of artificial intelligence.

At Wellington College, we are pioneering new approaches to preparing young people for a world shaped by AI. We have established an Institute for Human Flourishing in the Age of AI, whose work is being introduced across our international schools. One of its central questions is how we can help young people use AI to enhance their learning and capabilities, while developing ethical judgement to use these technologies responsibly and strategically.

There isn’t a sector that won’t be affected in some way by AI. But equally, employers are still crying out for young people and graduates who have strong human skills: ethical judgement, adaptive problem-solving, the ability to understand and engage with the world around them, and the capacity to collaborate, communicate, show resilience, empathy and compassion. These qualities remain incredibly important. In fact, I would argue that our world needs more compassion and empathy than ever before, not less.

Our world needs more compassion and empathy than ever before, not less.

Through the work of our Institute for Human Flourishing in the Age of AI, we want to ensure that, alongside outstanding examination results and university places, our young people develop the adaptable skills, both technical and human, that will enable them to thrive and flourish in whatever they choose to do as adults.

I think we’re going into an era where people kind of expect that you want your employees to be adaptable because the world is changing very fast.  It’s not just about having fixed skills anymore, but being adaptable and flexible.

You’re right. Adaptive problem-solving is one of the five core human competencies identified in the OECD’s Human Flourishing Framework, which we have adopted at Wellington College. Michael Stevenson, who developed the framework, is now leading our Institute for Human Flourishing.

Adaptability is important because young people today will have many different jobs in their lives, and they are genuinely taking jobs that didn’t exist when I was young. The idea of being a prompt engineer or working with AI agents, did not exist.

If we don’t equip them with the confidence and human skills to be able to be adaptable and flexible, then we’re not preparing them for the world of tomorrow.

How does Wellington College uphold its international educational standards while adapting its approach to preserve the culture and identity of the countries in which it operates?

Our international model has always been built on partnerships. I often describe it as a marriage: two partners bring different strengths and create something wonderful together, while each retains a distinct and recognisable identity.

There are certain principles that define a Wellington College education, wherever in the world it is delivered. We expect our schools to pursue academic excellence while nurturing the whole child through outstanding co-curricular opportunities, strong pastoral care, a commitment to service, and the development of young people with the confidence, character and global outlook to make a positive contribution to society.

Wellington College in the UK was the first school in the world to introduce taught wellbeing lessons into our academic curriculum around 20 years ago, and that commitment remains an important part of our educational philosophy.

These are the educational values and provisions that are the constant threads. Whatever Wellington College you go to in the world, these are instantly recognisable as being part of a Wellington College education.  At the same time, our schools have the freedom to express those principles within their local contexts.

In Nigeria, students will learn about Nigerian history and take part in community service projects that connect them with their local communities. In India, our students learn about Maharashtrian culture, including its dance and food. In Kazakhstan, where we will have schools next year, students will learn the Kazakh language, while in our bilingual schools in China, students study both the international and local Chinese curricula.

We want them to benefit from two complementary educational experiences: one firmly grounded in their local heritage and another that prepares them to engage confidently with the wider world.

For me, that is a win-win.

Artificial intelligence is changing careers and the nature of work, with new roles emerging that did not exist a few years ago. How should schools respond, drawing on Wellington College’s experience?

I think AI presents an incredible opportunity for education, as it does for every sector, if we can harness this transformational technology for good. That is why we must be deliberate about how we use it in our schools.

AI is already here, and young people are using it. A recent UK survey we conducted with the think tank Better Together found that around 83 per cent of secondary school-aged students were using AI at least once a week, with more than half using it several times a week. The technology is here, and young people are using it. As educators, that’s the reality. We can’t reinvent where we are. We have to make the best of where we are.

AI can be deployed strategically and intentionally in schools in a way that optimises the learning of each individual child, it can make a real difference. A teacher working with 24 students cannot provide continuous individual attention to every child. An appropriately designed AI tool, however, can offer personalised explanations, practice and feedback, helping teachers identify and respond more effectively to individual needs.

That could actually accelerate the learning process by freeing up more time for teachers to focus on what they do best: human-to-human connections with young people. Inspiring students, mentoring them, recognising when they are struggling, and knowing how to support them are things that technology cannot simply replace.

But alongside these opportunities, we have to give the students the ethical skills to be able to use AI for good.

During a visit to Goldman Sachs in New York earlier this year, I joined other school leaders in a conversation with some of the firm’s global executives. We asked whether AI would replace people in the workplace.

The response came back very quickly: absolutely not. What we will be doing is replacing people who don’t use AI, or who don’t use AI very well, with people who do use AI to optimise their performance within the world of work.

So, the human will still be there, but the humans who will succeed most in the world of work tomorrow will be the ones who can deploy AI efficiently, effectively, strategically and intentionally.

If we at school don’t engage with that during a Wellington College education, we’re not equipping our young people with the skills and experiences that they need to go into and flourish as adults, whatever they choose to do.

The permanent campus is being developed in Alaro City through a partnership with Rendeavour. What attracted Wellington College to this partnership?

When we consider potential international partners, we ask lots of questions: their vision, financial resources, location and, perhaps most importantly, their commitment to creating a lasting legacy. Education is fundamentally about making a positive contribution to future generations. We want the schools we establish, and the young people educated within them, to help make the world a better place.

Rendeavour’s approach resonated strongly with that ambition. It is developing cities across Africa through deliberate, long-term planning. These projects will take decades to reach their full potential, but they are being designed to serve communities for generations. That commitment to legacy was one of the strongest reasons we felt the partnership was right.

Alaro City was equally compelling. Rendeavour’s vision was to create a secure, well-planned environment with reliable electricity, clean water, strong connectivity and green spaces. For us, these were important considerations. An excellent school depends not only on what happens within its classrooms, but also on the quality of the environment in which its students learn and grow.

During my visit to Alaro City, I saw the school emerging from the construction site. What is being created there is remarkable. The prospect of Wellington College becoming an educational anchor within that community is particularly exciting. We see the partnership as one of the strongest we have developed during our 20-year journey of establishing international schools.

Many Nigerian families feel they must look overseas for a premium international education. Can Wellington College International Lagos change that equation? What will families be able to access here that they might otherwise seek abroad?

I hope families will recognise that they can access the benefits of a premium international education without necessarily putting their children on a plane for six hours to the UK. Our ambition is to offer the educational ethos, values and commitment to excellence associated with Wellington College, while providing an experience shaped by Nigerian culture, history and heritage.

During my time here, I have heard a lot about the Nigerian diaspora, including the number of young people who leave to study or work overseas and do not return. I have also heard encouraging accounts of Nigerians returning because they recognise the opportunities emerging at home.

There is something powerful about the prospect of future generations contributing to Nigeria’s development: building communities, creating businesses, strengthening industries and helping shape the country’s future.

For families in Lagos, we want to offer a genuine choice. Their children will be able to receive an outstanding international education while remaining connected to their families, communities, and identity. That is the distinctive proposition: bringing together the strengths of a traditional British education and the richness of Nigerian culture, here in Nigeria.

How do you see Nigeria’s education landscape evolving over the next five to ten years, and what role do you envision Wellington College International Lagos playing in shaping that future?

Nigeria already has a rich educational history and many excellent schools. We are certainly not approaching this project with the assumption that we know better or that we are here to address shortcomings in the existing system. That has never been Wellington College’s approach to international education.

When we established schools in China, Thailand and India, we did so because we saw opportunities to bring different educational traditions together and learn from one another. We approach Nigeria in exactly the same spirit.

All schools should be thinking very hard about how they continue to adapt their provision in order to prepare young people for the world of tomorrow. We might have been doing X, Y and Z for the past 30 years, but perhaps we now need to introduce A, B, and C as well, or rethink how we deliver what we already do.

One way Wellington College has contributed to that conversation is through the Festival of Education, which we have hosted in the UK for around two decades. It brings together thousands of teachers, school leaders, governors, policy makers, and education specialists for two days of discussion, debate, and the exchange of ideas.

We encourage our international schools to organise similar festivals. Recently, we held one in Bangkok, and earlier this year we hosted another in Shanghai. They bring together educators from the wider community to explore how teaching can improve, how schools should respond to new challenges, and what education might need to look like in the years ahead.

I would love to see that the same spirit of innovation develops in the Lagos campus.