Lithuania's National AI-in-Schools Guidelines, Backed by a €1.7m Teacher Licensing Programme

In February 2026 Lithuania's Ministry of Education, Science and Sport approved national guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence in schools, titled "School in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI): Principles and Guidelines for Responsible Use." The document was drafted jointly by the Ministry, the National Agency for Education, the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, the Innovation Agency, the Artificial Intelligence Association of Lithuania, the Lithuanian School Leaders Association, the Association of Teachers of Informatics, the Lithuanian National Union of Students, the KTU Artificial Intelligence Competence Centre, EdTech Lithuania, the DigiTech Association Infobalt, and Vilnius City Municipality. It is not compulsory: schools use it as a basis to write their own local rules, with the National Agency for Education's EdTech Centre offering advisory support.

The guidelines followed a government-commissioned survey finding that nearly 70% of Lithuanian teachers already use AI at work, about three-quarters of them to prepare lessons, develop curricula or draft documents. Vice Minister Jonas Petkevičius summarised the core principle: AI should be used "when it provides real added value to education," with teachers retaining the final say on classroom use. The Ministry paired the guidance with €1.7 million in funding for more than 30,000 software licences for teachers and students, including Microsoft Copilot.

The rollout was not presented as unqualified success. Geography teacher Laima Lapinskienė warned that for children AI "can be like a swamp — they can sink into it if they don't learn to critically judge what they're using." Education researcher Airina Volungevičienė cautioned that "teachers and school leaders will not always be able to determine whether a tool is appropriate," and administrator Jurgita Jaruševičienė said "it's unrealistic to think that schools in smaller towns will receive licences anytime soon" — an acknowledged equity gap between well-resourced and rural schools that the guidelines alone do not close.

Source: LRT (Lithuanian National Radio and Television), 1 February 2026: https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/2821214/nearly-70-of-lithuanian-teachers-use-ai-at-work-prompting-new-guidelines
Corroborating source: Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport (smsm.lrv.lt): https://smsm.lrv.lt/en/news-2/news-1/guidelines-on-the-use-of-ai-have-been-developed-to-help-each-school-set-its-own-rules-for-using-ai-with-didactics-and-methods-being-drawn-up-plUF/

Read the full analysis: https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/2821214/nearly-70-of-lithuanian-teachers-use-ai-at-work-prompting-new-guidelines