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• Education officials are cracking down on AI use as NCEA exam breaches surge by 250%.
• NZQA investigated 876 breaches last year, with 59 relating to AI use.
• Authenticity was the most common breach, with concerns about AI’s impact on assessment integrity.

Education officials are cracking down on AI use, as the number of NCEA exam breaches surge.
NZQA investigated 876 breaches of external assessments last year - 738 were substantiated.

216 investigations stemmed from literacy and numeracy standards, while the remaining 660 were from all other external assessment.

The total figure’s a 250% increase on the 2019 total (345).

Authenticity was the most common type of breach in 2024, with 209 reported cases.

Use of AI was identified as a breach type by NZQA for the first time.

There were 59 investigations relating to AI.

Secondary Principals’ Association president Vaughan Couillault believes some of the authenticity cases likely involved AI.

“We’re becoming increasingly aware of [AI] and when you’ve got a student who produces a miraculously different piece of work to anything they’ve been able to produce in class, that stands out quite a lot.“

“But it is quite challenging when you’ve got potentially a talented student who also attempts to use other means to produce some work.”

NZQA’s Deputy Chief Executive of Assessment Jann Marshall said the bigger focus on AI reflects the growing use of Chat GPT and other tools for assessments.

“What we need to make sure is that students use them appropriately - to brainstorm information, not replicate or simply transfer the information into an assessment,” she said.

“So it’s really important that we consider this an assessment design because we do not want to we want students to actually use the technology.”

“And so we continue to provide quite a bit of guidance, and we’re working with our colleagues at the Ministry of Education to regularly review and update that as the technology changes.”

Couillault said he’s disappointed at the number of students breaching assessment rules - but there has been a significant increase in the number assessments since Covid-19.

“So we now have three significant external events throughout the year as opposed to historically only one.”

“That’s all that literacy and numeracy stuff - so a fair chunk of the increase is attributed to those new digital assessments.”

Marshall said 418 of the 876 breaches investigated resulted in any action taken.

She said there are times when there warning letters are sent to students and they still receive the results.

“So for example, if a student takes notes into the assessment, but the notes wouldn’t help them in the assessment, then that’s often a warning letter.”

“However, if the notes are found to have advantaged them, then the result is withheld and they will not receive a result at all.”

Couillault said this is the best approach, as no one wants to see an entire qualification binned because of a “five minute indiscretion.”

“So I’m happy to trust [NZQA’s] judgement in that case, however, we are all acutely aware of the challenges AI brings to authenticity and assessment.”

Jaime Cunningham is a Christchurch-based reporter with a focus on education, social issues and general news. Jaime joined Newstalk ob�����ӿ� in 2023, after working as a sports reporter at the Christchurch Star.