Navigating the Future of Education
- Alison Perosin
- Mar 6
- 4 min read
The Sydney Morning Herald Schools Summit brought together ministers, researchers, principals and innovators to examine the future of Australian education. Here are the ideas that matter most for your school — and what they mean for the decisions you make this year.
OPENING SESSION - "Don't make everything a priority, because then nothing will be."
Good News on Vacancies — Now the Real Work Begins
Minister Prue Carr · Secretary Murat Dizdar
NSW teacher vacancies are at a 12-year low — down 70%. Merged and cancelled classes have been halved. These are genuine wins. But both Minister Carr and Secretary Dizdar were clear: this is the starting line, not the finish. The priority now: cutting administrative burden and actually listening to teachers. Dizdar's framing for school leaders was blunt and useful.
On AI: Educhat is already saving NSW public school teachers ~90 minutes per week. But Dizdar urged caution: move at the speed of trust, not hype. The question isn't whether to use AI — it's what it should never replace.
KEYNOTE - When success is framed as ability, effort becomes risky. If trying hard doesn't guarantee success — why bother?"
"We Can't Keep Saying Every Child Matters — and Assess Like This"
Dr Robin Nagy, UNSW
The core argument: by measuring only academic achievement, we structurally demotivate the majority. More than half of all students will always be "below average" in a ranked system. That's not a flaw — it's the design.
Dr Nagy invoked Campbell's Law: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. NAPLAN started as a diagnostic tool. League tables turned it into a competition.
His solution: a strengths-based assessment framework that measures effort — action-based, brain-based, and person-based — alongside academic growth. Not surveillance. Agency.
Diagram 1. Current Assessment Approach
PANEL DISCUSSION
The HSC, ATAR, and the Assessment Debate
Paul Martin (NESA) · Dallas McInerney (Catholic Schools NSW) · Dr Julie McGonigle · Mechel Pikoulas
On AI and integrity: NESA CEO Paul Martin made the point that malpractice in school assessment is not new — AI just makes it more frequent. Teachers know their students. The task is designing assessment that demands genuine understanding.
On rankings: Mechel Pikoulas was direct — league tables can be destructive. Behind every result is a child and a community that a number will never fully capture.
On the HSC's purpose: Dr McGonigle wants to form ethical, collaborative people — not just autonomous performers in competition with each other. Dallas McInerney countered that the HSC is also a world-renowned vocational pathway. Both are true.
The panel broadly agreed: what gets reported must broaden — VET completions and progress measures, not just Band 6 counts.
KEYNOTE
Students as Architects: Making Technology Hands-On
Søren Thomsen, Global Content Director, LEGO Education
Søren Thomsen's message was simple and pointed: AI is not magic. It is a technology. And the question for educators is not whether students will encounter it — but whether they will be its passive consumers or its active architects.
He built his case with a room full of educators and a pile of LEGO bricks. Same bricks. Same brief. Every single duck was different — a memorable, physical demonstration that creativity and individual thinking are irreplaceable.
His principles for technology in learning:
Prioritise child agency and engagement — students as active participants, not recipients
Empower understanding through meaningful hands-on experimentation
Ensure learning environments support wellbeing, inclusion, and safe participation
Foster hands-on, immersive, and collaborative experiences that inspire creativity and shared learning
PRINCIPAL’S PANEL - "All kids want to learn… maybe just not what you want to teach them at a particular time."
The Reality of Schools in 2026
Dr Kate Hadwen · Lisa-Maree Browning · Dwayne Hopwood · Denise Lofts (NSW Secondary Principals Council)
On retention: it's not (only) about pay. Workload complexity is driving good teachers out — navigating difficult communities, challenging behaviours, and admin that compounds over time. The psychological contract with early-career teachers is breaking in their first few years.
On wellbeing: principals from both a girls' and boys' school reported rising eating disorders and body image concerns. More young people are spending more time with human beings on screens than in person. The phone ban has helped — significantly.
The fix isn't entertainment. It's relationships, explicit teaching, and dynamic feedback — and schools being far more deliberate about protecting teacher time.
CLOSING SESSIONS
Classroom 2030: What Does Good Learning Actually Look Like?
Shane Hill (Excel HSC Copilot) · Prof. Matt Bower · Panel
The biggest AI risk isn't cheating — it's cognitive offloading. Shane Hill opened with Brookings Institute research: students are letting AI do the thinking instead of using AI to think harder. The question every educator needs to ask: does this raise or lower the cognitive bar?
Professor Matt Bower's research drew a clean and consequential line: Students who use AI to generate solutions decrease their understanding. Students who use AI to seek explanations increase it.
Bower also called for moving beyond the 4 Cs to the 4 Es:
The 4 Es — and What They Mean for Immersive Learning
Empathy — VR is uniquely powerful here. Full immersion places students inside another person's perspective, context, or world. No other technology develops empathy as directly or as deeply.
Ethics — immersive scenarios put students inside ethical dilemmas in ways that pages and screens cannot replicate.
Enterprise — hands-on, immersive environments build the initiative and problem-solving mindset that enterprise requires.
Engagement — immersive learning consistently produces the highest levels of student engagement and knowledge retention.
The School That Is Ready for 2030 Is Making Decisions Now
The Summit's message was consistent: the schools that will serve students best are not waiting for the system to tell them what comes next. They are making deliberate, evidence-informed investments today.
Immersive learning is no longer a horizon technology. It is curriculum-aligned, scalable, and being adopted by forward-thinking Australian schools right now.
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