NSW Considers Banning Take-home Assessments to Curb AI Influence in Schools

School students make their way through the Sydney central business district (CBD) in Australia on March 26, 2025. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty ImagesTake-home assessments could be banned in one state in a radical overhaul of artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom.New South Wales (NSW) Education Minister Prue Car on Aug. 10 ordered a review into AI in schools, aiming to protect the integrity of the state’s formal examination process. The review will examine AI’s impact on cognitive development and how schools can best assess students’ abilities in the modern age.Car requested the NSW Education Standards Authority consider a moratorium on unsupervised, take-home assessments in the meantime. She also asked the body to develop a manner for identifying inappropriate AI use common across NSW schools. Half of a NSW student’s final High School Certificate (HSC) result is based on school-based assessment, some of which is completed outside the classroom.Car said AI had the potential to ‘’support’’ learning but should not replace thinking, creativity and diligence. ‘‘If students rely on AI to bypass that learning process, we risk undermining both their education and the integrity of the HSC,’’ she said. ‘‘It is better to put sensible safeguards in place while we fully understand AI’s long-term impact on student learning.’’Teachers and educators recently told an Australian study that AI currently presented more harms than benefits in assessment integrity and cognitive development.Education consultants Learning First recommended in their May study that educators restrict student use of AI while keeping attuned to potential benefits in the future.Car had previously floated a return to pen and paper for Australian students in the face of tanking literacy and numeracy data. Around one in three students across all levels did not meet basic benchmarks in the latest National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests.The NAPLAN tests were fully digitised in 2022 except for year three writing exams and for students with special needs.Car feared NAPLAN exams pushed some schools to introduce computers into the curriculum earlier than they should.“I’m really keen to see what comes back about pen and paper because I think that it may show that that may be a good way forward,” Car said.By Allanah Sciberras and Max Aldred in Melbourne