Australia's education system is fracturing along ideological lines over artificial intelligence, with major alternative school networks refusing to develop AI learning tools even as state governments in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia roll them out for public school students and teachers.
Alternative schools draw a line on AI in the classroom
Steiner Education Australia — one of the country's largest alternative school systems — has ruled out creating a generative AI tool for its students or teachers. Chief executive Andrew Hill said the organisation would take a cautious stance toward anything that could interfere with healthy brain development.
"Anything which is going to compromise healthy growth of the brain, we would take a cautionary view towards," Mr Hill said.
The decision puts Steiner schools at odds with a growing number of state education departments that have invested in bespoke AI platforms. Supporters of embedding AI in schools argue it eases teacher workloads and helps senior students study more efficiently. But early research has raised concerns that over-reliance on the technology erodes independent problem-solving and critical thinking — precisely the skills many educators say are central to their work.
State governments push ahead with AI tools
Queensland's Department of Education has deployed a generative AI platform called Corella, available to teachers and to students in years 7 to 10, subject to parental consent. The department says Corella is built around a Socratic teaching method, designed to prompt thinking rather than simply deliver answers. New South Wales and South Australia have also developed their own AI assistants for classroom use.
Despite the enthusiasm from governments, the NSW administration this week announced a broad review into AI's impact on student learning, including consideration of banning take-home assessments — a sign that even early adopters are pausing to assess the consequences.
Australia's uptake among educators is striking by international standards. A 2024 OECD education report found two-thirds of Australian teachers had used AI in their work, ranking Australia fourth highest among the organisation's 38 member countries.
Teachers and students voice growing unease
Not every teacher is embracing the shift. A south-east Queensland state primary school teacher, identified only as Mark, said he scaled back his use of AI after noticing it drained warmth and authenticity from his lessons.
"I used it a bit last year to create things to read from, like an example paragraph to practise reading," he said. "And then I noticed it has that AI voice. I really started to notice it, and I thought 'this isn't great' — I don't want kids to learn how to read through this really sterile way of using language."
Another south-east Queensland teacher, Lauren, who teaches English and the humanities, said she was reluctant to model a technology she believes could undermine the very skills her subjects are meant to build.
"Those subjects exist to teach critical thinking skills. If we're outsourcing that to computers then what are we doing?" she said.
Student opposition has also moved beyond the classroom. In June, high school and university students gathered outside the construction site of a new data centre on the Sunshine Coast to protest the expansion of AI infrastructure. Those who attended cited concerns about environmental damage and the threat AI poses to young people's future job prospects.
What comes next for AI in Australian schools
The debate sits within a broader national conversation about how technology should shape the next generation. Questions around gifted education and differentiated learning have long divided school systems, and AI is sharpening those tensions further.
With the NSW government's review now under way and alternative systems like Steiner actively stepping back, Australia's schools appear set for a prolonged and unresolved argument about whether AI is a tool that empowers students — or one that quietly diminishes them.
