New South Wales AI assessment policy changes

In August 2026, New South Wales Education Minister Prue Car ordered a review into the impact of artificial intelligence on schooling. To protect the integrity of the Higher School Certificate (HSC), Car proposed a moratorium on unsupervised take-home assessments following reports of rising misconduct, including over 1,000 recorded cases of cheating in 2025. The review also aimed to examine AI’s effect on cognitive development and the potential necessity of returning to pen-and-paper assessments.

By September 2026, the government moved to implement rule changes. Starting in Term 4, schools will be restricted to a single take-home assessment task, which cannot exceed 15 per cent of a student’s grade. To maintain academic rigor and address the difficulty teachers face in detecting AI use, schools will utilize alternative methods such as oral tasks, exams, and process diaries.

Education Minister Prue Car stated these urgent rule changes for the HSC are necessary to respond to the “massive impacts AI will have on how children learn and how assessments are marked.”