Australia’s federal, state and territory education ministers have agreed to a national digital detox in schools, including limits on screen time and restrictions on generative AI in primary schools and secondary school assessments. The package, agreed at an Education Ministers Meeting this week, also returns Year 5 NAPLAN writing tests to pen and paper and sets up a taskforce to advise on further steps next year.
What the detox covers
The ministers agreed to set or consider screen time limits in schools across the country, and to restrict the use of generative AI in primary schools and in secondary assessments. Education Minister Jason Clare said the evidence shows the more time children spend online, the more likely their results are to decline, and warned that AI can undermine independent thinking.
A new Australian Schools Digital Detox Taskforce will gather evidence, survey students, teachers and parents, and advise on what further action to take next year. The return of Year 5 NAPLAN writing tests to pen and paper is meant to test children’s writing without the distraction of a screen.
A wider reform package
The detox sits inside a broader set of reforms. Ministers agreed to roll out changes to the first three years of maths teaching from next year, with a bigger focus on financial literacy, and asked the curriculum authority for advice on making civics compulsory in Years 9 and 10.
They also endorsed stronger teaching on antisemitism and the Holocaust, following the Bondi attack, and set up a Social Cohesion Education Advisory Council chaired by David Gonski to work on Australian values in the curriculum. The council will advise on how to embed those values more deeply in what schools teach.
The NAPLAN change is the most concrete part of the package. Year 5 writing tests return to pen and paper, so the test measures how well children write rather than how well they type. It is a small change with a clear message: some skills are still best tested by hand.
The meeting also agreed to create the Australian Teaching and Learning Commission, a single body covering the national curriculum, national testing, teacher standards, teacher training and research. It will bring together four existing bodies, ACARA, AITSL, AERO and ESA, so teachers can get what they need from one place instead of four.
Our read
This is the first time a national government has moved to restrict generative AI in primary schools and exams, and it will be watched everywhere. Australia is betting that the risks to children’s learning outweigh the benefits of early AI use, a position that puts it ahead of most countries still working out their school AI policies.
The move also fits a pattern in Australian policy. The country already passed a safety duty for chatbots in the House, and its school system has been tightening rules on phones and screens. The detox extends that logic from devices to the AI inside them, and the taskforce means the restrictions could grow.
There is a tension the ministers have not resolved. Restricting AI in assessments makes sense while the tools can write a student’s work for them, but the same tools are becoming part of everyday work. Schools that keep AI out of the classroom still have to teach children how to use it well outside it.
Why It Matters
Australia’s decision gives every other education system a test case. If screen limits and AI restrictions improve results, other countries will follow; if they do not, the experiment will be cited by those who argue for teaching with AI rather than against it. Either way, the debate about AI in schools now has a national policy to argue about.
Background
The school AI debate has been running through 2026, with Google adding an off switch for search AI in schools and separate controls for Gemini. Australia’s move goes further than a product setting: it is a government decision about what children should and should not do with AI at school.
Source: Australia’s ministerial release and AAP’s report
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