Artificial Intelligence is ‘landing’ in Greek schools from next year, through the pilot educational programme “AI in Schools” that will bring ChatGPT Edu, a special edition of ChatGPT designed exclusively for education, to selected upper high schools throughout the country.
In statements to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA), Education, Religions and Sports Minister Sofia Zacharaki described the pilot programme as “an important step for the school of the future”.
“With the pilot programme ‘AI in Schools’, we are bringing Generative Artificial Intelligence into classrooms for the first time, as an ally of education and not as a substitute for it,” she said, adding:
“We want teachers and our students to get to know, to understand and to use AI with responsibility, creativity and critical thinking.”
In the 20 schools participating in the pilot programme, teachers will have access to the tools from December, while pupils will have first contact with the AI tools in March 2026.
According to the education ministry, the programme aims to give all participants the opportunity to acquire skills and practical tools for making resposible, creative and educationally sound use of AI in teaching and learning.
The schools that will trial the new programmes include 14 model and experimental upper high schools (lyceums) and six of the new Onassis public schools operating since September. If the pilot implementation is successful, the ministry plans to gradually extend the use of AI to more schools around the country, so that Greece, in collaboration with big technology providers, can be a model for understanding and using these new technologies in education.
According to Zacharaki, ChatGPT Edu is expected to offer teachers a safe educational environment and practical tools for enhancing their lessons, in order to boost creativity, cooperation and critical thinking in their students.
The programme is being implemented by the education ministry in collaboration with OpenAI and the Onassis Foundation, with Zacharaki noting that this partnership served as “an example of how innovation can meet education when there is a common vision and joint action.”
Both teachers and students will receive individual training on using all the features of OpenAI models from the organisation “The Tipping Point in Education” and have access to the latest models in the ChatGPT Edu version, designed for use within classrooms. Implementation is carried out in collaboration with the Onassis Foundation, which is financing the programme.
According to ANA-MPA sources, the programme will be implemented in three phases during the current school year, plus one in the following year.
Phase one, in October and November, will be the training of selected teachers to familiarise them with the basic capabilities of ChatGPT Edu and how to safely incorporate this into their teaching and administrative tasks. The second phase will take place in December 2025-February 2026, during which teachers will have hands-on practice in the use ChatGPT Edu and how to gradually introduce it into classrooms, with seminars and support. Phase three will see the training of teachers in extending the use of AI tools to students (March-June 2026), while phase four will be in the following academic year, when both teachers and students will use the available tools.
According to the Onassis Foundation team in charge of planning and financing the programme, special attention is being given to the protection of personal data for both teachers and students, as well as to the responsible and safe use of ChatGPT Edu. It was noted that student licenses – expected to total around 5,000 – will not be distributed this year, but only after the successful completion of the programme’s first three implementation phases.
At that stage, teachers will be able to guide students not simply in using Artificial Intelligence – which, as they emphasised, is already happening – but in ensuring that this use takes place within a pedagogical and educational framework, equipping them with the necessary skills to understand and operate responsibly within the new technological reality.
According to education ministry sources, the implementation of the programme will be closely monitored and the gradual extension of the programme to more schools will be examined, while a working group has been set up in the ministry to assess whether AI can be meaningfully included in school as a valuable resource for teachers.
