Bulgaria's 41-Page National AI-in-Schools Guidelines — One of Europe's First

On 19 February 2024 Bulgaria's Ministry of Education and Science published a 41-page national guidance document on the use of artificial intelligence in schools, aimed at teachers, school officials, parents and students. Then-Education Minister Galin Tzokov described Bulgaria as among the first countries to introduce such guidelines for schools. The document explains what AI is and how chatbot-style tools work, sets out example uses such as lesson creation and identifying students at risk of dropping out through analysis of grades and absences, and states explicitly that "the use of AI in education must be constantly monitored and evaluated for its impact, taking into account the pace of development of technology." It stresses that AI should support, not replace, the decision-making authority of students, teachers and administrators. The guidance is not mandatory or binding — adoption is left to individual schools.

A follow-up Draft Strategy for the Development and Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Bulgarian Education, proposed in 2025, goes further: it proposes classifying educational AI uses by risk level (aligned with the EU AI Act paradigm), mandatory human-in-the-loop review for high-stakes decisions such as grading and admissions, mandatory Data Protection Impact Assessments, an inter-ministerial governance body, and a national registry of approved AI tools. As of this review the strategy remains a proposal rather than adopted policy, so its governance provisions should be read as a stated direction, not yet an implemented safeguard.

Source: Xinhua, 20 February 2024: https://english.news.cn/europe/20240220/4c2880a3ec3148c18f9786069a2a5202/c.html
Corroborating sources: Eurydice (European Commission), "Bulgaria: Guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence": https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/news/bulgaria-guidelines-use-artificial-intelligence; Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), 8 March 2024: https://www.bta.bg/en/news/culture/632084-education-minister-says-bulgaria-is-among-first-countries-to-introduce-guideline

Read the full analysis: https://english.news.cn/europe/20240220/4c2880a3ec3148c18f9786069a2a5202/c.html