Education ministers to spell out kids’ privacy safeguards for AI and ChatGPT in schools

AI technology companies will be banned from cashing in on children’s private information under the first national rules for the use of artificial intelligence in Australian schools.

Education ministers have raised privacy concerns about the use of ChatGPT in schools. Picture: AFP

AI technology companies will be banned from cashing in on children’s private information under the first national rules for the use of artificial intelligence in Australian schools.

The perils of AI for cheating, or harvesting children’s data use for commercial gain, will be tackled in national guidelines ordered by federal, state and territory education ministers on Friday for use in schools next year.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare warned of “privacy challenges’’ from AI in schools, declaring that companies must not use children’s search queries to target them with advertising.

“How do we make sure that if our children are using a generative AI technology like ChatGPT, that what they type into the system doesn’t get spat back to them as an ad on TikTok?’’ he said.

“How do you make sure that we use it for good, to help children to learn, but we don’t have children get the marks that they don’t deserve by using generative AI?

“This is one of those things like the calculator or the internet – we need to learn how to grapple with this new technology.’’

Education ministers ordered that rules of AI in schools be drawn up in time for implementation next year.

NSW Education Minister Prue Car said AI would be a “game changer’’ for education.

“The use of AI in schools could have a positive impact on teaching and the education outcomes of students, but it also comes with some genuine risks,’’ she said.

“The success of AI will depend on teachers being equipped with the skill to explain how the technology works and challenge anything it generates, including any biases.’’

Ministers also agreed to a national ban on mobile phones in classrooms, and to target children with health warnings about the dangers of vaping.

Mr Clare said ministers were concerned about the “equity’’ of many private schools allowing AI for school assignments, while the technology remains banned in most state schools.

“This is a tool for the 21st century, like the calculator for the 20th century,’’ he said. “And if some schools have access to it and some don’t, that’s a problem.’’

Mr Clare hailed the “important decision’’ to ban the personal use of smartphones in classrooms across the country, after NSW and Queensland fell in line with the other states and territories to impose an “away all day’’ policy.

He said the ban would help students focus in class and interact with their classmates during breaks. “If you’re on TikTok in the classroom, you’re not listening to the teacher,’’ he said.

“In the playground … take the phone away, and children start talking to each other, and playing with each other, and running around the playground having fun and exercise.’’

Education ministers agreed to work with health departments to warn students about the hazards of vaping. Mr Clare said teachers were tired of being “de facto police’’ having to confiscate vapes from students. “We’re getting rid of the fancy flavours … and designs to target children.

“(Teachers are) having to find vapes disguised to look like USBs or highlighters in pencil cases, having to deal with the fact that children are withdrawing from the impact of the vapes in the classroom or leaving the classroom to vape,’’ he said.

“If vapes are designed to stop people smoking, they should be in the pharmacy, not sold in the store at the railway station across the road from the school.’’

The ministers also agreed to issue tougher accreditation standards for university teaching degrees by the end of the year, with mandatory “core content’’ to cover practical skills in teaching literacy and maths, as well as classroom management.

Students who enrol in teaching degrees from 2025 must master the core skills before they can graduate.

Mr Clare said the changes would be mandatory, and ministers would have the “nuclear option’’ of revoking a university’s accreditation for substandard teaching degrees.

All education ministers endorsed reforms to initial teacher education, recommended by a panel of experts led by University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott, a former teacher and NSW Education Department chief.

Professor Scott on Friday called on state education departments to provide better practicum placements in schools for trainee teachers, in the way that hospitals help train medical students.He said experienced and skilled teachers should mentor university students during their practicum training in schools.

“We’ve had circumstances where some students are organised their own practicum, and felt alone and overwhelmed,’’ he said.

“You want the best teachers in the school supporting the next generation of teachers.’’

The Australian Education Union demanded that teachers be paid more for the extra workload of mentoring trainees.

“Mentor teachers need to be professionally supported, and financially compensated, for the time it takes to support student teachers as they begin their teaching practice,’’ AEU president Correna Haythorpe said.

She called on governments to increase spending on public schools by $6 billion a year by 2028.

“Right now we’ve got one in 10 students across the nation who are effectively not funded,’’ she said.

“That shortfall is over $6 billion a year for our children.’’

But Mr Clare insisted that any extra funding must be tied to practical education reforms.

Federal Opposition education spokeswoman Senator Sarah Henderson welcomed the reforms to teacher training, which were based on the former Coalition government’s inquiry, but called on Mr Clare to “drive education reform much more urgently’’.

“Explicit instruction, including the teaching of phonics, must be front and centre of every Australian classroom as a matter of urgency,’’ she said.

“As found by the Australian Education Research Organisation, it is untenable that 20 per cent of Year 7 students have the reading ability of a Grade 4 student.’’

“I want to ensure were tying this investment to the things we know will work to help children who fall behind to catch up, and help to make sure that more people finish high school and go onto TAFE or university, because that is the key to success in the economy we live in today,’’ he said.