NZEI Te Riu Roa says teachers need a seat at the table in developing proposed national guidance on AI use in education.
Responding to the Education Review Office’s (ERO) latest findings, NZEI Te Riu Roa President Ripeka Lessels welcomed calls for a consistent national framework but warned that guidance developed without the voice of teachers and their unions would miss the mark.
“We support ERO’s call for a coherent and nationally consistent approach,” Mrs Lessels said.
“However, teachers must be involved. Teachers’ professional judgment and their relationships with ākonga are central to authentic learning and assessment. The Government needs to do more, not less, to value and recognise the professional expertise of teachers and to include them in critical decisions about our education system.”
Mrs Lessels said widespread AI use across primary schools – with more than nine in ten school leaders and more than four in five teachers using it – was not surprising.
“Educators are grappling with unprecedented workload pressures generated by the government’s rushed curriculum overhaul,” she said. "And the administrative burdens for school principals add to this load.”
A survey conducted by NZEI Te Riu Roa earlier this year showed that 87.5% of primary teachers reported an increased workload, with 44.4% adding more than two hours per week due to the Government’s curriculum changes. In a separate survey, 99% of primary principals said the pace of change was overwhelming while 97% described the implementation timeline as unrealistic.
Mrs Lessels said the inappropriate use of AI risked de-professionalising teaching, dumbing down learning, undermining the integrity of assessment, and impacting children’s privacy – none of which would support student success.
She added that issues around data sovereignty and Te Tiriti o Waitangi must also be central to any discussion on AI – areas where government action is long overdue.
“It’s also disappointing that ERO’s research focused solely on English-medium state schools. Tumuaki, kaiako, ākonga, and whānau from Māori-medium kura should have been included.”