List of recommendations

2.96The Committee recommends that the Australian Government:

consider making the use of GenAI in education a national priority

create safeguards for all users, especially minors

maximise the opportunities of GenAI education-specific tools and integrate such tools into the school curriculum and practice.

2.97The Committee recommends that the Australian Government work with State and Territory Governments to ensure that all Australian schools are funded to100 per cent of the Schooling Resourcing Standard.

2.98This could support access to high-quality educational GenAI tools by students and educators, especially in marginalised communities.

2.99The Committee recommends that the Australian Government in conjunction with the States and Territories:

monitor current pilot programs and evaluate the different approaches to using GenAI education tools in schools, including as a study buddy

build high-quality GenAI education products with datasets based on curriculum, and that meet ESA’s product standards, based on the learning outcomes of current pilot programs.

2.100The evaluation should include consultations with State and Territory Governments to implement GenAI pilot projects about lessons learned, and how to best design the procurement process.

2.101The Committee recommends that the Australian Government work with key partners to promote GenAI tools that are fit for purpose, meaning they are:

quality education products in terms of the design and alignment with educational outcomes

featuring a higher-quality filter to restrict the data used to train an LLM

trained on datasets based on the Australian Curriculum, so inputs are:

olocal—reflecting the Australian context, including the curriculum and Indigenous knowledge

oinclusive—for example, gender and disability inclusive.

2.102The Committee recommends that the Australian Government provide more support to implement the Australian Framework for Generative AI in Schools, including to:

expediate the taskforce’s creation of an implementation plan for the framework and ESA’s product setting work

provide funding to set up virtual and physical hubs to provide expert and technical advice and support to institutions

in conjunction with others—provide GenAI literacy and training, to leaders, teachers, support staff, students, parents and guardians, and policy makers

make certain guiding statements in the framework that general educators are not qualified to implement, apply instead to technical staff.

2.103The Committee recommends that the Australian Government encourage consistent guidance and uptake of GenAI:

in school—education, by working with ACARA to integrate AI literacy across all subjects in the next curriculum review cycle—and to update it regularly to reflect the rapid technological developments, knowledge and skills required

in HE—including updating the threshold standards, and recognises TEQSA’s leadership role and efforts.

2.104The Committee recommends that the Australian Government:

allow the use of GenAI by educators and staff in ECEC for certain purposes, such as reducing administrative burden, and defer the use of GenAI by children in ECEC until a framework is developed or the NQF is updated

allow students in primary school to have access to bespoke GenAI tools but restrict certain features and build in more safeguards to make those tools age appropriate, noting that primary school students should not have access to certain GenAI products like ChatGPT, which have minimum age requirements.

2.105The Committee recommends that the Australian Government promote safeguards by working with:

the eSafety Commissioner, and resourcing the Commissioner to support education providers by giving further guidance on how to use GenAI ethically, safely, and responsibly in educational settings

State and Territory education departments to develop and implement ethical, safe, and responsible AI practices, and voluntary and mandatory guardrails

education providers and the EdTech industry to safely integrate GenAI into Australian schools, universities, and TAFEs, with appropriate internal and external support and safeguards, to:

orealise the benefits of GenAI to educators, other staff, researchers, and students, and to Australia broadly

oactively mitigate risks, including the potential for misuse.

2.106The Committee recommends that the Australian Government, utilising DISR’s expert advisory group:

identify unacceptable risks in the education sector, including making the use of GenAI to detect emotion be under an unacceptable risk category for use in schools, like the EU’s approach

explicitly consider the design, development, and deployment of AI systems that could be categorised as high-risk in the education sector

have specific regard to the vulnerability of children

identify pre-deployment guardrails for GenAI products for use in the Australian education system.

2.107The Committee recommends that the Australian Government work closely with key international partners:

including the EU, Canada, and US, to promote interoperability regarding requirements and guardrails for GenAI products

including non-governmental stakeholders, to share best practice, identify opportunities, and bolster the evidence base of the impacts of GenAI in education.

3.89The Committee recommends that the Australian Government:

regulate EdTech companies and developers through a system-wide risks‑based legal framework

regulate unacceptable risks and high-risk AI systems in the education sector, mandate guardrails, and give the law extraterritorial effect

ensure EdTech companies and developers’ products meet established standards, including through testing and independent quality assurance

require EdTech companies and developers to share critical information about how their AI systems are trained, what data it has been trained on, and how algorithms function and affect users

require EdTech companies to provide a Gender Impact Assessment to be completed.

3.90The Committee recommends that the Australian Government work with AI developers and educational institutions to create robust data protection frameworks. This includes, but is not limited to:

outlining students’ and other users’ rights regarding their personal data

identifying the measures taken to protect users’ privacy

limiting, and getting permissions for, the collection, use, and retention of students’ data, including:

othat certain types of data be collected

othat data should only be used for educational purposes

othat data be protected from unauthorised access and to have strong encryption practices in place

owhere, how, and for how long data can be stored

othe purpose for retrieving data and who can access the data

othat users’ data is not stored offshore or sold to third parties.

3.91The Committee recommends that the Australian Government work with educational providers to mitigate the risks of algorithmic bias and mis- and disinformation by:

training educators to teach students how to critique AI generated outputs

mandating that institutional deployers of AI systems in educational settings run regular bias audits and testing

prohibiting the use of GenAI to create deceptive or malicious content in education settings

completing risk-assessments

ofor example, identifying and seeking to eliminate bias and discrimination through the data the model is trained on, the design of the model and its intended uses

omandating to allow independent researchers ‘under the hood’ access to algorithmic information.

3.92The Committee recommends that the Australian Government:

ensure that the privacy law reforms led by the Attorney-General’s Department include strengthening privacy protections for students, including minors, regarding the use of GenAI

encourage the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner to develop an impact assessment measure which can identify the data privacy risks of GenAI tools use in education, and includes pre-deployment measures for implementation of GenAI tools.

4.106The Committee recommends that the Australian Government invest in training to teach educators of marginalised student cohorts—including disability or learning difficulty, low socio-economic, ESL, and regional, rural or remote—about how GenAI can specifically aid them.

4.107The Committee recommends that the Australian Government, in conjunction with educational providers, encourage educators and other staff to use GenAI tools for appropriate tasks to help streamline parts of teaching and administration.

4.108For example, lesson planning, timetabling, reporting, and simple grading for yes/no or multiple-choice questions.

4.109The Committee recommends that the Australian Government, in conjunction with educational providers and educators, use data-driven insights from GenAI tools for beneficial purposes.

4.110This includes to provide individually tailored feedback for students, to respond to identified systemic trends, and to streamline assessment processes.

5.79The Committee recommends that the Australian Government work with State and Territory education departments to train educators and other staff in maximising the benefits of GenAI tools in educational settings, including:

training for pre-service teachers

professional development for existing teachers.

5.80The Committee recommends that the Australian Government support teachers in schools to build students’ skills through project-based learning, inquiry‑based approaches, and real-world problem-solving activities that demonstrate the risks of the technology.

5.81The Committee recommends that the Australian Government, in collaboration with the State and Territory governments, develop and implement a national training rollout plan for:

educators and broader education workforce through professional development and training, including virtual and in-person short courses and learning modules

students, through teacher delivery and online resources

parents and guardians, through information campaigns, school-led meetings, and online resources.

5.82The Committee recommends that the Australian Government encourage:

the use of the existing Digital Technologies Hub as a one-stop online repository of training and resources for educators, students, and parents and guardians to learn and teach about GenAI

a community of practice of AI champions, comprising lead educators and early adopters of AI in schools, TAFEs, and universities.

5.83The Committee recommends that universities and TAFEs embed GenAI competencies and skills across all courses and degrees.

5.84The Committee recommends that universities provide pre-service teachers with training in AI literacy in their degrees, including built-in industry-practice.

5.85The Committee recommends that Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency work with higher education providers to develop standards and frameworks, including authorship policies, to guide universities in maintaining research and academic integrity regarding GenAI.

5.86The Committee recommends that the Australian Government establish an innovation fund for universities to undertake research and development on the positive and negative impacts and potential application of the use of GenAI in education.

5.87The Committee recommends that the Australian Government establish a Centre for Digital Educational Excellence, modelled on the existing Cooperative Research Centres, which would act as a thought-leader in relation to both the use and development of GenAI in school and university settings.