Overview
- On Sunday, Education Minister Prue Car formally asked the NSW Education Standards Authority to impose an interim moratorium on unsupervised take‑home HSC assessment tasks that could start next term if NESA advises in favour.
- NESA has identified a steep increase in cheating linked to generative AI across exams, take‑home assignments and practical work and records show 1,270 HSC assessment misconduct cases last year with the majority tied to take‑home tasks.
- The moratorium is described as temporary and will sit inside a broader review of AI’s effect on learning, with likely exemptions kept for subjects that require major projects such as art and technology.
- Many schools have already tightened verification measures, including draft checkpoints, digital‑footprint checks and viva voce oral checks, after teacher surveys said educators feel ill‑equipped to prevent AI misuse.
- The move has reopened a policy split between NSW’s restrictive approach and federal voices who argue for integrating AI to personalise learning, and it could push more assessments back into supervised or pen‑and‑paper formats.