AI in Schools
ReadyTech wins Victorian TAFEs, Gemini lands in Classroom
Digital Attitudes, 30 June 2026
The Tuesday read is one ASX listed Australian vocational software vendor that has just walked away with the contract to replace eleven Victorian TAFEs' core student management system, one Google product wave that brings Gemini into the Google Workspace for Education tenant the state and Catholic systems are already running, and one English Department for Education research piece that prices a 1,092 company ed-tech market the Australian sector benchmarks against.
ReadyTech wins the Victorian TAFE Network common student management system
Eleanor Dickinson at iTnews reported on Tuesday 30 June that ReadyTech has been selected by the Victorian TAFE Network as the preferred supplier for a common student management system, with Bendigo Kangan Institute, Chisholm Institute and Melbourne Polytechnic TAFE the three institutes signing on for the initial five year term. The pilot covers approximately 40,000 students across 10 campuses on ReadyTech's Job Ready Plus product, with the option to scale to all 11 institutes in the network behind the same shared platform. ReadyTech's ASX disclosure on the day named the limit: "At this stage, there are no committed contract values or mandated rollout timelines," and "any future implementation will be subject to further scoping, approvals and customer requirements." The selection follows a competitive tender the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions ran through the back half of 2025, and ReadyTech's share price closed up nine per cent on the announcement. iTnews on the Victorian TAFE common student management platform selection, 30 June.
Why this matters: For the Victorian Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions reading the contract against the existing TechnologyOne, Oracle and bespoke student management estate the eleven institutes carry into the 2027 enrolment year, the operational read is that the network has just chosen a single shared SMS path rather than the per institute procurement model the sector has run for the last fifteen years, and the question the next ministerial briefing answers is whether the remaining eight institutes get the same Job Ready Plus migration plan inside the five year term or whether the contract sits at the three pilot sites and the rest hold the incumbent. For TAFE NSW, TAFE Queensland, TAFE SA and the WA TAFE network reading the Victorian decision against their own student management estates (the TAFE NSW $90 million Oracle build the iTnews archive priced, the TAFE NSW $34 million Microsoft renewal the same desk carried, the $44 million Dell master contract the network signed in 2024), the procurement read is that ReadyTech now sits on the same shortlist as the incumbent SaaS providers for the next inter jurisdictional VET platform conversation, and the question the next state procurement panel answers is whether the cross border consolidation conversation the VET sector has been holding for a decade gets the operational anchor it has been missing. For ed-tech vendors selling SMS, LMS, attendance and finance products into Australian vocational education (TechnologyOne's OneEducation, Oracle's PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, the Ellucian Banner installations sitting in the dual sector universities, the Sentral, Compass and Schoolbox products on the secondary education side), the procurement read is that the Victorian TAFE Network has just put a domestic ASX listed SaaS player at the front of the shared services VET platform conversation, and the vendor whose roadmap cannot answer the cross institute consolidation question the network has just signed on for is the one whose 2027 renewal cycle has the wrong reference customer on the first slide.
Google ships Gemini into Classroom, study notebooks and Chromebook AI controls land
Emma Thompson at EdTech Innovation Hub carried the Google Workspace for Education product wave on Wednesday 25 June, with three concurrent rollouts: a new Classroom app inside Gemini that lets teachers query assignments, grades and course materials directly from the chat interface, study notebooks rolling out globally on the web for the Gemini app at no cost, and Read Along expanding across every Google Workspace for Education tenant by 3 July at no cost. The Classroom in Gemini app lets a teacher ask the model to review recent submissions, identify reinforcement gaps and draft follow up activities grounded in the class content, with Google naming the data control: "data accessed through the Classroom app remains within Google Workspace for Education and is not used to train its AI models." Study notebooks ship with diagnostic quizzes, adaptive lessons, follow up quizzes and a progress dashboard tracking more than 100 learning objectives, with SAT preparation through The Princeton Review available at launch and ACT, GRE, India's JEE and NEET, and Brazil's ENEM coming through the back half of the calendar. The forthcoming Chromebook controls let an administrator restrict a student device to an approved set of learning environments, and Google has named a Model Context Protocol server that gives third party ed-tech platforms a structured way to reference authorised class information against the Classroom record. EdTech Innovation Hub on Google launching Gemini study notebooks and expanding Read Along in Classroom, 29 June.
Why this matters: For state Department of Education and Catholic system Google Workspace for Education tenant administrators running the term 3 deployment calendar against the existing student device fleet (the Queensland Department of Education Chromebook estate, the Education Perfect, Stile and Atomi integrations against the same Workspace tenant, the Sentral and Compass sign on federations), the operational read is that Google has put a teacher facing AI surface (study notebooks, Classroom in Gemini, Read Along) and a system facing AI control surface (the Chromebook approved learning environment list, the MCP server giving third party vendors structured class access) into the same Workspace tenant at the same time, and the question the next architectural board paper answers is whether the term 3 configuration baseline gets the new AI surface and the new control surface switched on together or whether the policy paper signs off the teacher tooling before the device level controls land. For school principals and heads of digital learning writing the term 3 AI tooling list against the Microsoft Copilot Notebooks the Thursday brief priced and the Canva Glow council level AI switch the Sunday brief carried, the operational read is that Google has now matched Microsoft's lesson planning, retrieval practice and AI literacy surface inside the free entitlement and added a literacy specific Read Along layer Microsoft does not carry, and the question the next staff meeting answers is whether the school's existing reading instruction stack (the Reading Eggs, Lexia Core5 and PM Benchmark licences) holds the position against the no cost Read Along layer or whether the term 3 budget paper reverts the reading licence line to the Workspace tenant the school already pays for. For ed-tech vendors selling AI tutoring, AI literacy, AI marking and reading fluency products into Australian schools (Khanmigo from Khan Academy, MagicSchool, Eduaide, Nurture, Reading Eggs from 3P Learning, Lexia Core5, Pearson Writing Coach), the procurement read is that Google has just absorbed the literacy, study guide and retrieval practice categories into the standard Workspace tenant entitlement at no marginal cost, and the vendor whose pitch deck cannot name a clearly differentiated value the paid product gives the teacher beyond what the Gemini study notebook now does is the one whose next contract conversation answers a principal who has just read the Google for Education blog on the same tab.
DfE prices England's ed-tech market at AUD$12 billion and calls for usage data
The English Department for Education published a sector wide ed-tech research report on Monday 29 June that values the English ed-tech market at GBP£5.93 billion (AUD$11.99 billion) annual turnover across 1,092 companies, with GBP£776 million (AUD$1.57 billion) in investment, and an additional GBP£570 million (AUD$1.15 billion) of turnover and GBP£6 million in investment when the UK numbers are added in. The assessment technology segment grew at 18.1 per cent across the year on GBP£470 million (AUD$950 million) of turnover and only GBP£24.3 million of investment, while personalised learning attracted GBP£187 million (AUD$378 million) of investment against just GBP£77 million (AUD$156 million) of turnover, the gap the research report frames as investor positioning for AI driven demand. The report's headline finding sits on the usage data gap: "You assume teachers are using it, and actually, when you look at the usage, they're not." The recommendations list the DfE put alongside the numbers names a national ed-tech roadmap, consistent evidence standards based on educational need and impact, improved procurement and usage data visibility, and longitudinal research on AI and personalised learning effectiveness. The diversity numbers attached to the same data set: 13.4 per cent of ed-tech companies were founded by women, 10.5 per cent have female leadership, and women hold 19.8 per cent of director positions. EdTech Innovation Hub on the DfE putting England's ed-tech market at GBP£5.9 billion, 29 June.
Why this matters: For the federal Department of Education and the State of Education Ministers' Meeting reading the DfE report against the Australian Council of Educational Research's own sector data and the Paul Ramsay Foundation's call for a national ed-tech quality assurance body the same year, the operational read is that England has now published the procurement evidence base the Australian sector has not commissioned, and the question the next ESA paper answers is whether the federal department asks ACER, AERO or ESA itself to deliver an equivalent Australian market sizing piece against the procurement data the state systems already hold or whether the gap stays open into the next Australian Education Senior Officials Committee cycle. For state Department of Education chief procurement officers reading the "you assume teachers are using it, and actually, when you look at the usage, they're not" quote against the same procurement panel the state has been renewing on the existing telemetry, the read is that the active contract held against unused product is now the headline procurement risk the English buyer's research is publishing as a sector wide finding, and the question the term 4 contract paper answers is whether the next renewal cycle requires the vendor to publish per school usage telemetry the principal can read against the licence cost or whether the existing contract template carries the renewal at the same baseline. For ed-tech vendors selling AI marking, AI tutoring, lesson planning, secure assessment and assistive products into Australian schools (Education Perfect, Stile, Atomi, Maths Pathway, Cluey Learning, Janison, Brightpath, Pearson Writing Coach), the procurement read is that the 18.1 per cent assessment technology growth rate the DfE report names sits next to the AUD$50 million plus the eight Australian state and territory systems pay creative and assessment ed-tech vendors a year, and the vendor whose pitch deck cannot answer the usage data question the English research is now publishing as the sector benchmark is the one whose next contract conversation has the wrong number in the first paragraph.
The Tuesday thread is the Victorian TAFE Network choosing a domestic SaaS vendor over the incumbent enterprise stack, Google matching Microsoft's classroom AI surface inside the existing Workspace tenant, and the English DfE publishing the procurement evidence base the Australian sector has not yet asked for. More on the operational read at digitalattitudes.com.au.