By Susana Tomaz – Futures Education & AI Lead, Westlake Girls High School, International Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (UNESCO) Fellow, Global Mentor on AI in Education for Asia Europe Foundation, Developer of Open Education Resources
Since my June blog, a lot has happened in the AI and education space:
- New Zealand has finally released its first national AI Strategy making us the last OECD country to do so. It’s a welcome step for productivity and competitiveness. But one glaring omission stands out: the Education Sector.
- The Government has announced plans to replace NCEA with a new qualification system, alongside the use of AI for marking.
- NZCER released the first national survey on generative AI in Aotearoa’s primary schools. The findings are sobering: 69% of teachers now use AI weekly (mainly for lesson planning, assessment, and personalisation). 96% rely on free tools, but only 44% feel confident teaching responsible AI use. Meanwhile, 90% of students have heard of AI and over half are already using it with little or no guidance.
In my March 2024 EdTechNZ blog (https://lnkd.in/dkeu74mJ, I highlighted the urgency of a Gen AI Framework for Education. 16 months on and ….
In my March 2024 EdTechNZ blog, I highlighted the urgency of developing a GenAI Framework for Education. Sixteen months on, the message is clear: AI is no longer on the horizon — it is already embedded in our education system. From classroom practice to student habits to national assessment, AI is here. And yet, education still lacks the governance structures and clear framework needed to guide safe, equitable, and future-focused integration in education. Addressing this gap is now critical.
The Urgent Need for Tailored Guidance in Education
MBIE Science and Innovation’s Responsible AI Guidance (July 2025) is a strong step towards safe and trustworthy AI use across Aotearoa. While designed for the private sector, its principles, governance, privacy, cybersecurity, transparency, and risk assessment are highly relevant to education.
But education is not just another sector. It is where young people develop identity, belonging, critical thinking, and agency. That is precisely why we need guidance tailored to the ethical, developmental, and pedagogical realities of education.
One urgent issue is assessing risk when AI tools are used with children and young people. Most mainstream tools, such as ChatGPT, require users to be over 13, with parental consent often required under 18. Their outputs are not designed with children in mind, and more education technologies are now being infused with AI. Add to that the escalating threat of deepfakes, and the stakes for education become urgent.
The risks are real. An internal Meta document revealed its AI systems could “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual.” (Horwitz, 2025).
On the other hand, tools like Google Gemini are now open to all ages, creating a legal and ethical grey area for schools to navigate on their own.
AI in Schools: Beyond the AI Plagiarism Conversation
In New Zealand, the AI-in-schools debate is too often confined to plagiarism, a narrow view that neglects the richer questions of equity, human development, metacognition, and wellbeing, the very dimensions that education must prioritise if young people are to thrive in an AI-infused world. The questions we need to ask are:
- How are we protecting children and safeguarding mental health?
- How are we nurturing metacognition and critical thinking?
- How do we preserve relational learning and human connection in an age of machines?
- How are we building the skills young people need to thrive as citizens and future workers?
The UK’s Internet Matters report “Me, Myself & AI” (July 2025) underscores the urgency of adopting intentional leadership in this space. The findings are striking: 35% of children say AI chatbots feel like talking to a friend; 25% would rather talk to an AI than a real person; and 26% of vulnerable children are using unsafeguarded chatbots
Here’s the truth:
- If we don’t teach children to question AI, they will learn by trial and error.
- If we don’t prioritise AI literacy, we risk letting machines shape their worldview.
- If we don’t act now, we risk failing the very generation we say we’re building the future for.
What happens when you flip the conversation and give youth the chance to lead?
At the AI Forum NZ x She Sharp AI Hackathon, 12 wahine from Westlake Girls’ High School entered their first-ever hackathon with no prior experience. Out of 11 teams, four of their five ideas made it to team formation. The students developed AI-for-Good solutions to challenges they identified, ranging from disaster management and AI literacy to migrant integration and a job simulation tool to help youth explore career pathways in the age of AI. One team created an AI-powered system to strengthen disaster response coordination between services, NGOs, and government agencies, earning them the runner-up prize. An idea that sparked from a Geography class.
While much of the school AI conversation centres on plagiarism, these students showed what’s possible when we change the narrative and empower them to innovate, echoing OECD calls to recognise children as stakeholders in shaping decisions that affect their lives. At the AI hackathon, AI became a catalyst for youth-led solutions to real-world problems. Check out the students in action here.
This is the essence of what the future of education should look like: authentic, futures-focused interdisciplinary learning that positions students as agents of change. NCEA gives students the space to connect their learning to real-world challenges. We must ensure the curriculum review doesn’t narrow the focus to just assessment mechanics or knowledge recall, but rather protects and strengthens the opportunities for futures-focused, authentic, and interdisciplinary learning. This is exactly what will prepare our young people to thrive and lead in an uncertain and complex world. You can have your say on the curriculum changes here by 15 September.
Investing in the Future of Aotearoa New Zealand
Generative AI is projected to add $76 billion to New Zealand’s economy by 2038. The students in our classrooms today are the workforce of tomorrow. Yet without a clear education strategy, we risk:
- Deepening inequities as access to AI education remains uneven;
- Accelerating the talent drain—in 2024, 47,300 New Zealanders left for Australia, over half aged 20–39;
- Failing to prepare young people to compete in a global economy shaped by intelligent systems;
Education cannot be left on the sidelines of New Zealand’s AI journey. Now is the moment to invest in a generation of AI-ready learners—to safeguard their wellbeing, empower their agency, and equip them to thrive.
Education is not an afterthought. It is the foundation of our future.
