Poland's Education Ministry Puts AI at Center of School Policy for First Time

Poland's Ministry of National Education (MEN) has published eight main priorities for the state's education policy for the 2026/2027 school year, and for the first time, responsible use of artificial intelligence appears explicitly among them. The document, announced by Education Minister Barbara Nowacka, takes effect right as the new school year begins on Tuesday, September 1.

What the ministry's document changes

The education policy priorities are an annual document through which the ministry sets the agenda for schools, regional education authorities (kuratoria) and teacher training centers for the coming school year. Previously, artificial intelligence appeared in it only marginally, as one thread among many on digitalization. In the 2026/2027 version, it got its own dedicated priority titled "digital hygiene and offline activity," in which MEN explicitly addresses building skills for safe online behavior and critical thinking, including responsible use of artificial intelligence.

Alongside the AI thread, the eight priorities also include implementing the "Kompas Jutra" ("Compass of Tomorrow") reform, building social resilience and civic attitudes, health education, psychological and pedagogical support, prevention of behavioral addictions, career counseling, and promoting interdisciplinary education and project-based work. Regional education authorities (kuratoria oswiaty) were also tasked with monitoring how schools fulfill compulsory education requirements and use the Integrated Education Platform (Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna).

A gap between students and teachers

Behind the ministry's decision lies a clear competency gap shown by data from NASK, Poland's national research institute for cybersecurity. Just 15 percent of teachers say they intend to use artificial intelligence in their work, while among students the figure is already 58 percent, mainly for finding information, translating texts and writing papers. In other words, students are using AI on a mass scale regardless of whether schools teach them to, while most teachers remain on the sidelines.

The "White Paper on AI in Polish Schools" report, prepared by the Digital Education Section of the Committee on Informatics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), assessed the ministry's existing teacher training program critically, calling it poorly designed, too difficult, and built around the model of a single global tech corporation instead of focusing on pedagogical and ethical aspects. PAN experts recommended suspending the current training and creating a long-term AI competency development program, with an emphasis on the skills of teachers and students rather than equipment alone.

Equipment funding is already flowing

Infrastructure investments are already underway independent of the new document. More than 5 billion zlotys from the National Recovery Plan (KPO) is going toward equipment supporting the use of artificial intelligence in Polish schools, which authorities describe as one of the largest projects of its kind in Europe. Prime Minister Donald Tusk stressed on the occasion that modern solutions can support users but also create risks of manipulation, while Minister Nowacka noted that schools must adapt not only in terms of technical equipment but also organizationally and mentally.

Modern solutions can support users, but they also create a risk of manipulation - Donald Tusk, Prime Minister

Schools must adapt not only in terms of technical equipment, but also organizationally and mentally - Barbara Nowacka, Minister of National Education

What it means for schools and parents

For school principals, the new priority means a concrete task for the coming year: they will need to demonstrate actual efforts to educate students on safe AI use, not just formal equipment purchases. Until now, as PAN experts pointed out, many teachers and principals treated artificial intelligence mainly as a threat and preferred banning ChatGPT use over teaching students to use it responsibly.

For parents and students, the change has practical significance since it applies to the school year starting this coming Tuesday. Regional education authorities will now assess how this priority is implemented as part of pedagogical oversight, which should push schools toward concrete plans rather than mere declarations in their statutes.

Poland is not alone in this. Institutions in other European Union countries describe similar dilemmas over how to reconcile students' growing use of AI with teachers' lack of preparation, though few of them have written responsible AI use explicitly into an official, annual state education policy the way Poland's Ministry of National Education has now done.

The effects of the new priority will only be assessable in a year, once regional education authorities sum up its first full year of implementation. The key question raised by commentators is whether schools will receive real organizational and financial support to carry out this task, given persistent staffing shortages among teachers and school psychologists.