Exploratori în lumea inteligenței artificiale — Vodafone Foundation Romania's National AI-Literacy Programme for Middle Schools

Vodafone Foundation Romania commissioned a 2025 study, “AI in European Schools”, which found that 70% of Romanian students believe AI will shape their careers, but only 54% feel school has prepared them and only 40% think their teachers have relevant AI skills. In response, the foundation, Romania's Ministry of Education and Research, and the Association of Economic Computing Club (CyberKnowledge Club) designed “Exploratori în lumea inteligenței artificiale” (Explorers in the World of Artificial Intelligence).

The programme runs on the free “Școala din Viitor” (School of the Future) platform and delivers six interactive modules on algorithmic bias, ethical dilemmas in AI, responsible use, AI's environmental footprint and digital citizenship, using a cascade model in which 100 experienced teachers were trained as ambassadors who then coached classroom teachers through the year.

In the 2025-2026 school year the programme reached 17,626 students and 932 teachers across 295 schools — nearly three times and almost double the original targets respectively (195% of the school target). Of participating schools, 39% were in large urban areas, 37% in small urban areas and 24% in rural regions. In post-programme surveys, 85% of teachers reported improved digital competencies, about 98% found the activities beneficial for students, over 97% rated the platform materials highly, and nearly 99% said they intended to keep using the resources.

These figures are self-reported reach and satisfaction data from the implementing partners, not an independent evaluation: there is no external measurement of students' AI-literacy gains, no control group, and survey response rates are not published.