NSW Deputy Premier Wants to Ban Unsupervised AI-Assisted Homework Amid HSC Integrity Fears
Half of every NSW student's final school result comes from take-home work. Officials now worry AI is quietly doing that work for them.
Key points
- NSW Deputy Premier Prue Car has asked the NSW Education Standards Authority to urgently review AI's impact on student learning.
- The review targets unsupervised take-home assessments, which make up a significant share of HSC (Higher School Certificate, the final credential NSW students earn at the end of Year 12) results.
- Car cited growing evidence that AI use is affecting students' cognitive development, meaning their ability to think, reason, and retain knowledge independently.
- No ban is in force yet; Nesa must complete its review before any rule changes take effect.
Prue Car, the New South Wales Deputy Premier, has written to the NSW Education Standards Authority, known as Nesa, asking it to urgently examine how artificial intelligence is affecting the way students learn and to consider banning unsupervised take-home assessments.
That might sound like a bureaucratic shuffle. It isn't.
Why does this matter for students and families?
Half of every student's HSC result comes from school-based assessments, and some of that work is completed at home, away from any supervision. Car's concern is straightforward: if a student can hand a question to an AI chatbot and paste the answer into their assignment, the mark they receive no longer reflects what they actually know.
"Artificial intelligence has enormous potential to support teaching and learning," Car said, "but it should never replace the thinking, creativity, and hard work that education is designed to develop."
School, she argued, is not just a machine for producing assignments. It is meant to build judgment, resilience and critical thinking across years of practice. Short-circuit that process with AI and, her logic runs, students graduate holding a certificate that flatters rather than reflects their real abilities.
What could actually change?
Nesa has not yet announced a ban. Car's letter is a request to move quickly, not a rule in force today. The authority will conduct a broad review of AI's role in student learning before deciding on any policy change.
If a ban on unsupervised take-home work does follow, schools would likely need to shift more assessment into classrooms, under exam-style conditions, where a student cannot reach for ChatGPT or any similar tool mid-answer.
For families, the practical message right now is this: the rules have not changed yet, but they may change before the next assessment cycle. Worth watching.
What happens next?
Nesa will report back after its review. The Guardian covered Car's intervention as part of broader national debate about AI in Australian classrooms, a debate that is moving fast in every state.
The underlying tension is real and won't dissolve whatever Nesa decides. AI assistants are free, fast and available on every phone. Banning take-home work addresses the symptom. Figuring out how to teach well alongside these tools is the longer, harder problem every education system is now racing to solve.
Common questions
Does this affect the HSC exams students sit in the exam hall?
No. The concern is specifically about take-home assessments completed outside school. Supervised written exams are already conducted under conditions that prevent AI use.
Is AI use in schoolwork already against the rules?
Most NSW schools have policies against submitting AI-generated work as your own, but enforcement at home is difficult, which is precisely why Car is asking Nesa to rethink the format of take-home tasks entirely.
