Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has raised alarm over Australia’s worsening digital literacy results after national testing recorded the lowest proficiency levels since assessments began two decades ago.
“These results have been trending down for two decades. At the same time, more and more children have had access to digital technology and devices,” Clare said.
“It begs the question: what is going on here?”
The latest national ICT literacy assessment, conducted by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), found just 37 per cent of Year 10 students and 50 per cent of Year 6 students met proficiency standards in digital literacy.
About 10,000 students across both year levels sat the tests in May 2025, which assessed skills including creating presentations, searching for information, analysing data and understanding online safety.
ACARA chief executive Stephen Gniel described the results as the worst since national testing began in 2005.
“The 2025 results show a decline in student proficiency in ICT literacy and continuing gaps between different groups of students,” Gniel said.
“It’s our lowest level since testing began in 2005.”
The results also revealed major achievement gaps, with Indigenous students, children in remote communities and students from lower socio-economic backgrounds performing significantly below their peers.
Despite students spending more time online and using devices more frequently, Gniel said that exposure alone was not translating into stronger digital capability.
“Just because you have a tool, it doesn’t mean you know how to use it; it certainly doesn’t mean you know how to maximise its use,” he said.
“That also includes not understanding the risk factors.”
He stressed the importance of teaching students how to identify misinformation and fake online content.
“These are really important skills for us to teach our children … to identify whether information is fake,” Gniel said.
The assessment found most students reported being taught how to search for information and assess whether online content was trustworthy, while around 80 per cent said they had received lessons on cyberbullying and online privacy.
Although the national test itself did not assess artificial intelligence skills, a separate survey conducted alongside the assessment found AI use among students was already widespread.
One in four Year 10 students said they frequently used AI tools to assist with school tasks, while more than 60 per cent of Year 10 students and almost one-third of Year 6 students reported using AI to generate written content at least once a month.
Gniel said the findings reflected broader international trends around AI in education.
“This confirms what we see in international research, that AI is being used for schoolwork and it’s being used by teachers as well,” he said.
“We need to make sure AI use is effective and appropriate, rather than just offloading the learning to a machine.”
Clare said he had asked the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) to investigate the causes behind the declining results and said AI would become a major focus for education ministers later this year.
“The even bigger question is what AI is doing and will do to learning,” Clare said.
“The challenge is to support teachers and students to use it safely, ethically and in a way that supports learning, not undermines it.”
Gniel added that future national digital literacy testing would likely include AI-related capabilities as schools increasingly adapt to rapid technological change.
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