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Professionals · code 2330

Secondary education teachers

AI can mark the essays. It can't get a room of fifteen-year-olds to care about them.

Nine of the eleven tasks are mostly out of AI's reach, including designing courses and marking. Getting the classroom ready and keeping order it barely touches.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Secondary education teachers teach one or more subjects at secondary education level, excluding subjects intended to prepare students for employment in specific occupational areas. Tasks include - (a) designing and modifying curricula and preparing educational courses of study in accordance with curriculum guidelines; (b) establishing and enforcing rules for behaviour and procedures for maintaining order among students; (c) preparing and giving lessons, discussions, and demonstrations in one or more subjects; (d) establishing clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects and communicating those objectives to students; (e) preparing materials and classrooms for class activities; (f) adapting teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students’ varying needs and interests; (g) observing and evaluating students’ performance and behaviour; (h) preparing, administering and marking tests, assignments and examinations to evaluate pupils' progress; (i) preparing reports about pupils’ work and conferring with other teachers and parents; (j) participating in meetings concerning the school’s educational or organizational policies; (k) planning, organizing and participating in school activities such as excursions, sporting events and concerts. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Secondary school teacher - High school teacher Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Head teacher - 1345 - School principal - 1345 - Vocational education teacher - 2320 - Schools inspector - 2351 - Literacy tutor (private tuition) - 2359 - Mathematics coach (private tuition) - 2359 - School counsellor - 2359 Notes Those who teach vocational subjects that are intended to prepare students for employment in a particular occupational group should be classified in Unit Group 2320: Vocational Education Teachers, whether they work in a general secondary school or in a vocational or technical school or college. Those who teach, at secondary education level, subjects such as mathematics that do not aim to prepare students for employment in a specific occupational area, should be classified in Unit Group 2330: Secondary Education Teachers, even if they are employed in a vocational or technical college.

  • secondary school teacher

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

70 / 100

Mostly holds up against AI

AI can take a few chores off your plate, but most of the day is still yours.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Not Exposed

239 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 11 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 29.8 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 29.8 = 70.2.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Not Exposed”: None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count.

This job rates 27.5 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Secondary education teachers 70

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Lesson planning and resources.
  • Marking and feedback.
  • Reports and admin.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Teaching and motivating students.
  • Behaviour and classroom management.
  • Mentoring and pastoral care.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Teaching students to use AI well.
  • Assessment that AI can't do for students.
  • Detecting and discussing AI-written work.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Low

35 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 60 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

28 how hands-on

Not much of this job needs hands, so the robot can sit this one out.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 10 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

28 How
hands-on
10 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, matched to one US job .

finger skill 16 · hand skill 1.7 · cramped spaces 11.8 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 47, against an average of 30. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 47

    Designing and modifying curricula and preparing educational courses of study in accordance with curriculum guidelines

    Low
  2. 35

    Preparing, administering and marking tests, assignments and examinations to evaluate pupils' progress

    Low
  3. 34

    Preparing reports about pupils' work and conferring with other teachers and parents

    Low
  4. 32

    Establishing clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects and communicating those objectives to students

    Low
  5. 31

    Planning, organizing and participating in school activities such as excursions, sporting events and concerts.

    Low
  6. 27

    Preparing and giving lessons, discussions and demonstrations in one or more subjects

    Low
  7. 26

    Adapting teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students' varying needs and interests

    Low
  8. 26

    Observing and evaluating students’ performance and behaviour

    Low
  9. 26

    Participating in meetings concerning the school's educational or organizational policies

    Low
  10. 24

    Preparing materials and classrooms for class activities

    Very Low
  11. 23

    Establishing and enforcing rules for behaviour and procedures for maintaining order among students

    Very Low

11 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
60
AI does it for you
35

Sidekick wins, by 26 points.

How good a match is this?

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 2413, 2414

So, should secondary school teachers be worried?

Short answer: not much. Some of the chores will change, and good riddance.

Parts of the job are changing. Curriculum design, marking, reports, lesson objectives, activities and adapting materials are among the most exposed tasks, all Low; classroom preparation and behaviour management rate Very Low. AI will take on planning and marking; teaching teenagers stays human.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” family, averaging 61. This one is above the family average.

Pit this against any other job →