As South Africa’s Class of 2025 moves into the final stretch of its National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams, educators and students are reaching for a new set of study tools: generative artificial intelligence. Local reporting from The Citizen quotes Centennial Schools’ director of academics, Amoré Pretorius, describing AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Poe, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot as “personalised, interactive learning pathways” that can reshape revision, practice and digital literacy for matriculants — while also warning that AI must be used as a study partner, not a shortcut. (citizen.co.za)
The NSC remains a pivotal credential for university admission, bursaries and worker mobility. Matric preparation has always mixed classroom teaching, teacher-generated resources and past papers; what is new in 2025 is how AI-driven systems increasingly sit alongside those long-standing methods as study accelerants and scaffolds. The Citizen piece profiling Centennial Schools’ first matric cohort captures this shift in a concise, human-scale case study. (citizen.co.za)
Platform behaviour, legal disputes and feature availability for AI tools are also fluid. Perplexity’s citation behaviour and Quora’s Poe policy posture have evolved over 2024–2025 and remain subject to legal and commercial change; those platform-level dynamics can alter the practical value of any given study workflow. Schools and students should expect vendor announcements and court activity to change how features work — and should therefore validate contractual and privacy claims at the time of any procurement. (theverge.com)
The responsible path combines three elements: teacher supervision and assessment redesign to guard learning outcomes; contractual and technical controls to protect student data and privacy; and explicit AI literacy training for students so they can evaluate, verify and use generated outputs. When those elements are in place, AI can sharpen thinking and increase confidence without replacing the discipline of learning. The Class of 2025 may well finish their exams having gained more than marks — they may also leave school better equipped to work with the very tools shaping the future world of work. (theverge.com)
Source: The Citizen AI as an important study tool of matric Class of 2025 | Fourways Review
Background: the stakes for Matric Class of 2025
South Africa’s NSC final examinations run in the October–November window, and for 2025 official timetables show the main exam period falls across late October and November. Schools, parents and learners are planning revision timetables and practical assessments around these dates. (studentroom.co.za)The NSC remains a pivotal credential for university admission, bursaries and worker mobility. Matric preparation has always mixed classroom teaching, teacher-generated resources and past papers; what is new in 2025 is how AI-driven systems increasingly sit alongside those long-standing methods as study accelerants and scaffolds. The Citizen piece profiling Centennial Schools’ first matric cohort captures this shift in a concise, human-scale case study. (citizen.co.za)
How students are using AI in study workflows
Five practical AI uses educators are endorsing
Centennial Schools’ academic leadership recommends five concrete ways students can use AI to study smarter — and these reflect how teachers and edtech teams worldwide are piloting generative tools in classrooms:- Summarise notes — AI can compress chapters and class notes into structured summaries, helping learners focus on core concepts rather than rote detail. (citizen.co.za)
- Explain tricky concepts — models can rephrase complex topics into step-by-step explanations or analogies that match a learner’s level. (citizen.co.za)
- Create practice questions — AI can generate quizzes and exam-style problems for immediate practice and formative feedback. (citizen.co.za)
- Adapt to learning styles — whether a student prefers text, visuals or spoken revision, AI can reshape content into the preferred format. (citizen.co.za)
- Build revision timetables — scheduling assistants powered by AI can balance subject loads and reduce burnout risk. (citizen.co.za)
Tool-by-tool: what students actually get
- ChatGPT and similar chat assistants: flexible, conversational help for explanations, step-through problem-solving, and mock Q&A. They are widely used because of ease of access and rich promptability.
- Poe (Quora): an aggregator that exposes multiple model voices through a single interface; useful for comparing styles but has raised content-use questions in the past. (wired.com)
- Perplexity: positions itself as a citation-first research assistant, providing sources alongside answers — attractive for students who need verifiable references. That model of surfacing citations makes it popular for research-focused tasks, though it has also faced legal scrutiny over content use. (theverge.com)
- Microsoft Copilot: increasingly integrated with Office, Edge and Windows, Copilot variants now include features for document analysis, research across browser tabs, and specialized workflows that can assist study from notes and PDFs. Microsoft’s roadmap and announcements explicitly push Copilot as a productivity and learning aid. (reuters.com)
Why AI helps — and where it actually adds value
AI’s utility in revision is not merely novelty — it addresses real gaps in traditional study methods:- Scalable personalization: small schools and large ones alike struggle to offer individual tuition. AI can tailor explanations to a student’s current level, making differentiated feedback affordable and immediate. (citizen.co.za)
- Rapid generation of practice material: building mock exams is time-consuming for teachers; AI can draft exam-style questions that teachers can vet and reuse. (citizen.co.za)
- Active recall and deliberate practice: AI-generated quizzes enable repeated retrieval practice — one of the best-proven study techniques — at scale. Independent pilots and guidance recommend such use when teachers supervise question selection and review.
- Skill reorientation for the digital economy: beyond exam content, using AI responsibly signals digital literacy that matters for employability, a point made directly by Centennial’s leadership. (citizen.co.za)
The risks: academic integrity, accuracy and inequity
Academic integrity and “mode abuse”
AI raises the classic tension between assistance and outsourcing. Students can use models to generate entire essays or solve homework problems verbatim; detection tools are imperfect, and blanket bans tend to be ineffective. The global trend is toward managed integration — setting clear policies, redesigning assessment and teaching students how to use AI ethically. Recent reporting from international outlets shows schools shifting away from blanket prohibitions to explicit AI-use policies and new assessment formats. (apnews.com)Accuracy and hallucinations
Generative models sometimes produce confident but false statements. If students treat AI outputs as authoritative without verification, misconceptions propagate. Citation-aware assistants help but do not eliminate the need for source checks; legal disputes and platform limitations can also affect the quality and traceability of those citations. Perplexity’s model of surfacing sources is useful but has been the subject of litigation and criticism, underscoring the need for verification. (theverge.com)Privacy, data handling and vendor choice
Many consumer chatbots store prompts in ways that could be aggregated for model training. Schools must check whether enterprise or education plans exclude student data from training and what telemetry is retained. Microsoft and other vendors offer tenant controls and education-focused offerings, but details vary and administrators should review data governance before rollout. (theverge.com)Equity and access
Advanced on-device accelerated features, premium plans and stable internet access create a risk that wealthier students access richer AI experiences while others fall behind. Schools piloting Copilot-style features have to plan for parity: shared devices, scheduled lab time and free alternatives where possible.Institutional responses: pilots, policy and pedagogy
- Pilot before scale: run small, teacher-supervised pilots to test content accuracy, pedagogical fit and admin controls. Evaluations should measure whether AI use improves measurable learning outcomes, not only speed of completion.
- Assessment redesign: incorporate in-class, oral or process-based assessments where the use of generative models is clearly defined and demonstrable. Live coding sessions, supervised problem-solving and portfolio-based assessment reduce the value of dishonest AI use. (apnews.com)
- Teacher training and AI literacy: short professional development modules on prompt design, hallucination checks and privacy help staff guide students responsibly. Institutions deploying enterprise solutions should train admin teams on retention settings and opt-in/opt-out flows.
- Data governance: prefer education or enterprise contracts that explicitly exclude student content from model training; require clear retention policies and the ability to delete student data on demand. (theverge.com)
Practical guidance for matric students using AI
- Use AI to practice, not to produce final submissions. Treat generated answers as drafts to test understanding, then rework them in your own words. (citizen.co.za)
- Always ask for sources when an AI provides a factual claim; follow up by checking primary materials (textbooks, scientific articles or official resources). Citation-first tools help but are not infallible. (theverge.com)
- Keep a revision log: save prompts, AI outputs and your corrected answers. That log becomes a study portfolio showing learning progression — useful for teachers and for exam revision.
- Use AI to generate quizzes and then simulate exam conditions (timed, no external help) for retrieval practice. Combine with past NSC papers aligned to the 2025 timetable. (studentroom.co.za)
- Protect sensitive information: never paste personal identifiers, unpublished research or exam papers into public models. If a school provides an enterprise tool, confirm the privacy contract first.
Critical analysis: strength, weakness and the long view
Strengths
- Scalability: AI provides one-to-one-like explanations for large cohorts with limited teacher hours. This can materially improve targeted remediation in under-resourced settings when coupled with teacher oversight. (citizen.co.za)
- Skill alignment: familiarising learners with AI tools mirrors the skill shift in the job market; being able to work with assistants, evaluate outputs and integrate them into workflows is itself a marketable competence. (citizen.co.za)
Weaknesses and unknowns
- Overreliance and deskilling: excessive dependence on generative answers risks hollowing out reasoning skills if assessments aren’t redesigned to require demonstration of process and original thought. Educators warn that the solution lies in pedagogy, not in detection alone.
- Accuracy and legal risks: tools that synthesize web content face legal challenges and occasional content quality regressions; these platform-level disputes can change feature availability or citation behaviour overnight. Students and teachers must treat AI outputs as provisional. (theverge.com)
- Access inequality: premium features, device performance and reliable connectivity are uneven; the early benefits of AI may accrue disproportionately unless schools plan equity measures.
Recommended checklist for schools and administrators
- Evaluate and run a controlled pilot class with teacher moderation for at least one term.
- Draft a clear AI policy for learners and parents: permitted uses, citation expectations and consequences for misuse. (apnews.com)
- Choose vendor offerings that provide education-specific contracts excluding student data from training, and specify retention windows and audit logs. (theverge.com)
- Train staff with short, practical workshops on prompt engineering, source verification and spotting plausible hallucinations.
- Plan assessment redesigns that reward reasoning, process and creativity — include oral exams, portfolios and in-person demonstrations. (apnews.com)
What remains unverifiable or fluid
The Citizen article cites Amoré Pretorius as Centennial Schools’ director of academics; that local reporting is the primary attribution for her quoted views in this story. Independent, widely published profiles detailing her professional biography beyond the school’s statement were not located in public records during research for this article; readers should treat the personnel attribution as reported by the local outlet. (citizen.co.za)Platform behaviour, legal disputes and feature availability for AI tools are also fluid. Perplexity’s citation behaviour and Quora’s Poe policy posture have evolved over 2024–2025 and remain subject to legal and commercial change; those platform-level dynamics can alter the practical value of any given study workflow. Schools and students should expect vendor announcements and court activity to change how features work — and should therefore validate contractual and privacy claims at the time of any procurement. (theverge.com)
Conclusion: a pragmatic future-facing approach
For matriculants facing the October–November NSC window, AI is neither a miracle nor an existential threat — it is a set of powerful new study tools that deliver personalised practice, rapid content scaffolding and fresh ways to rehearse exam skills. Centennial Schools’ approach — promoting AI as a study partner, embedding digital fluency across grades, and offering concrete tactics such as summaries, explainers and AI-built timetables — is a pragmatic model for schools that want to harness benefits while managing risks. (citizen.co.za)The responsible path combines three elements: teacher supervision and assessment redesign to guard learning outcomes; contractual and technical controls to protect student data and privacy; and explicit AI literacy training for students so they can evaluate, verify and use generated outputs. When those elements are in place, AI can sharpen thinking and increase confidence without replacing the discipline of learning. The Class of 2025 may well finish their exams having gained more than marks — they may also leave school better equipped to work with the very tools shaping the future world of work. (theverge.com)
Source: The Citizen AI as an important study tool of matric Class of 2025 | Fourways Review