Professionals · code 2341

Primary school teachers

AI can plan a lesson. It can't run a room of thirty seven-year-olds.

Supervising children and keeping order AI barely touches. Planning lessons and marking are where it gets closest, and even those are mostly out of its reach.

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

Primary school teachers teach a range of subjects at the primary education level. Tasks include - (a) preparing daily and longer term lesson plans in accordance with curriculum guidelines; (b) instructing children individually and in groups, using various teaching methods and materials (e.g. computers, books, games), adapting to children’s varying needs; (c) maintaining discipline and good working habits in the classroom; (d) planning and conducting activities with the children such as sporting activities, concerts and excursions; (e) assigning and grading class work and homework; (f) preparing, administering and grading tests and assignments to evaluate children’s progress; (g) observing and evaluating children’s performance and behaviour; (h) supervising children during classes and at other times in the school day, including the playground during breaks; (i) participating in staff meetings and other sessions, and conferring with other teachers concerning educational issues; (j) preparing for and attending parent meetings to discuss children’s progress and problems. Example of the occupations classified here: - Primary school teacher Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Head teacher - 1345 - School principal - 1345 - Schools inspector - 2351

primary 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.

74 / 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

205 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 10 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 26.1 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 26.1 = 73.9.

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 23.3 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?

Primary school teachers 74

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 progress reports.
Meeting notes and admin.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

Teaching and managing a class.
Noticing the child who isn't alright.
Building relationships with families.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

Teaching children to use AI well.
Assessment redesigned around what can't be outsourced.
More pastoral 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

32 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 63 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

23 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 12 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

23 How
hands-on

12 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, averaged across 2 US jobs .

finger skill 21.4 · hand skill 6.3 · cramped spaces 6.9 · 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 26. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

47
Preparing daily and longer term lesson plans in accordance with curriculum guidelines

Low
34
Assigning and grading class work and homework

Low
28
Preparing, administering, and grading tests and assignments to evaluate children‚Äôs progress

Low
26
Planning and conduct activities with the children such as sporting activities, concerts and excursions

Low
26
Preparing for and attending parent meetings to discuss children‚Äôs progress and problems.

Low
25
Participating in staff meetings and other sessions, and conferring with other teachers concerning educational issues

Low
21
Observing and evaluating children‚Äôs performance and behaviour

Very Low
20
Instructing children individually and in groups, using various teaching methods and materials (e.g. computers, books, games), adapting to children‚Äôs varying needs

Very Low
19
Supervising children during classes and at other times in the school day, including the playground during breaks

Very Low
16
Maintaining discipline and good working habits in the classroom

Very Low

10 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: 63
AI does it for you: 32

Sidekick wins, by 30 points.

How good a match is this?

3 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 2412, 2413, 4221

So, should primary school teachers be worried?

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

No. Planning lessons and marking are the most exposed tasks, and they only reach Low; teaching, supervising and keeping order rate Very Low. AI can take on a lot of preparation and paperwork. What grows is the part only a teacher can do.

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