New South Wales is moving toward a tougher approach to take-home school assessments as generative AI makes it harder to know how much of a student’s submitted work is actually their own.
Deputy Premier and Education Minister Prue Car has asked the NSW Education Standards Authority to urgently consider a moratorium on unsupervised take-home assessments while it reviews the effect of AI on student learning, The Guardian reported Monday.
Any interim changes would be subject to NESA’s advice and could begin in the fourth school term. The review matters particularly for students completing the Higher School Certificate because school-based assessments account for part of the final result.
Current NESA policy already treats unapproved use of AI in assignments as a breach of academic integrity and says schools should use varied assessment methods that allow teachers to judge authentic student learning.
The challenge is increasingly structural rather than disciplinary. If students can generate polished essays, reports and homework outside the classroom, schools have to decide which forms of assessment still provide trustworthy evidence of knowledge and independent thinking.
Why it matters
Education systems are beginning to redesign assessment around the assumption that powerful AI tools are permanently available. The question is shifting from how to detect AI use to how to measure learning when AI is always within reach.