Gen-UI — Slovenia's National Study of Generative AI Use in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Education

Gen-UI ('Generativna UI v izobraževanju') is a two-year Slovenian national project (June 2024-May 2026) studying and guiding the use of generative AI in primary, secondary and tertiary education. Funded by the Republic of Slovenia and the EU's NextGenerationEU Recovery and Resilience Plan, and led by Zavod Antona Martina Slomška, it brings together 10 partner institutions — including the universities of Ljubljana, Maribor and Primorska, the Jožef Stefan Institute, and Slovenia's State Institute for Education (ZRSS) — across seven work packages.

The project has published three monographs, including a University of Maribor Press analysis of generative AI use across primary, secondary and tertiary education (May 2025), plus guidelines and more than 60 documented examples of practice. A related survey in March 2026 of 231 students at Šolski center Kranj examined how students actually use generative AI.

The Kranj survey found that while students most often use AI to explain material or find facts, many also delegate higher-order cognitive work to it — 56% for evaluation, 49% for analysis and 41% for creation — and only 26% reported having clear school rules on AI use, with 14% given no guidance at all. The project frames these results as evidence of a 'cognitive debt' risk, where students offload critical thinking to AI, and cites national data showing school-based AI training remains the exception rather than the norm.