georgie ross

— (Georgie Ross, is a drama and performing arts alumna of Rose Bruford College and Goldsmiths, University of London, & Director of Professional Learning & Engagement, The Oracy Group, UK)

Several analyses stress that while technical skills matter, capability to communicate, collaborate and demonstrate emotional intelligence will differentiate candidates in AI-enabled workplaces

If there is one uncomfortable truth educators must face in 2026, it’s this: students can now use AI to generate passable essays in minutes. That doesn’t make writing unimportant, but it does force a new question onto the table: what can’t be outsourced?

The answer is surprisingly simple. Students still have to think, and they still have to talk.

They have to explain an idea clearly to a teacher, negotiate roles in a group project, ask questions when they’re stuck, listen to a classmate’s perspective, persuade a panel in an interview, and handle disagreement without shutting down. In other words, they still need oracy: capability to speak and listen effectively, with purpose. This is not a ‘soft’ add on. It is the operating system of learning.

India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 highlights this reality. It describes communication as a core “life skill” and argues for learner centred pedagogies that are inquiry driven and explicitly discussion based. NIPUN (National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy) Bharat, launched in 2021, goes even further at foundational stage: it defines oral language development as listening, comprehension, oral vocabulary, and extended conversation skills, all linked directly to literacy. The policy direction is clear. The question is implementation.

So why, in so many Indian classrooms, is high quality student oracy still rare? Because oracy is often regarded as a personality trait, a quality inherent in confident children, rather than a capability schools deliberately build. We timetable English, Science, and Mathematics, but rarely timetable talk. And when we do, it is too often limited to annual debates, assemblies, or a handful of showcase events.

To prepare students to thrive in higher education and employment in an increasingly AI shaped labour market, it is important to shift oracy from one off performances to a whole school culture. The evidence base is strong. Research shows that embracing an oral language approach in schools can deliver measurable gains in learning outcomes. The Education Endowment Foundation’s evidence review estimates that oral language interventions are associated with an average six months’ additional progress.

But classroom culture does not change because someone hands teachers a new worksheet. It changes when teachers learn how to orchestrate dialogue and when school leaders support them with time, coaching, and shared expectations. That is where teacher professional development becomes critical.

A growing body of evidence indicates that coaching is one of the most powerful forms of professional development. There is no shortage of studies showing that teacher coaching can significantly improve instructional practice and student achievement. For oracy, this translates into a clear model: teachers need training in dialogic questioning and conversation routines, followed by short cycles of observation, feedback, and rehearsal until new habits stick.

Alongside teacher development, students need structured practice through workshops that build confidence and competence step by step. Schools can run short discussion labs where students learn explicit listening and turn-taking routines; voice and presence sessions that strengthen clarity and audience awareness and inquiry circles where students learn respectful disagreement and reasoning. NIPUN Bharat explicitly recognises oral presentations and role play as valid forms of assessment at the foundational stage, and schools can extend that approach across all year groups.

And now the employability reality: AI does not make human communication less important; it makes it more important.

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report highlights rising demand for human centred capabilities such as leadership and social influence, and identifies empathy and active listening as core skills. It also notes that skills rooted in human interaction show no substitution potential with current generative AI. These are the areas where students can build lasting advantage. In India, employer focused analysis similarly stresses that while technical skills matter, capability to communicate, collaborate, and demonstrate emotional intelligence will differentiate candidates in AI enabled workplaces.

So what should school leaders and policymakers do now? Embed oracy into timetables, not necessarily as a separate subject, but as protected routines across subjects. Build oracy into assessment through short oral explanations, group discussion tasks, and presentations. Make it part of teacher development and appraisal, not as a compliance exercise, but as a shared standard of effective teaching. Invest in low cost, high impact resources such as talk protocols, sentence stems, rubrics, and coaching capacity.

Most importantly, set a cultural expectation: every child, regardless of language background, gender, or confidence, improves her speaking and listening skills every year.

Oracy is not an optional skill. It is how students learn, how they belong, and how they will lead.