What the AI Regulation Really Requires from Schools This Academic Year
Now that the first schools are starting up again, there is more clarity about what exactly the AI Regulation expects from them this year.
There are three key moments. From February 2025, a school must support the professional development of staff who work with AI. From 2 August 2026, it must be clear when someone is dealing with AI, and when text or images have been created using AI. And, expected from 1 August 2027, AI literacy for pupils themselves will be added to this.
The bar for staff is lower, but not looser
Since 27 July, a school no longer needs to demonstrate that every staff member is already up to standard. However, it must take measures that support the development of AI literacy. This may sound like a relaxation, but it mainly means that professional development must be organised seriously and demonstrably, not abandoned.
Digital literacy is now also a statutory core objective
On 2 June, the Senate legally anchored digital literacy in primary education and the lower years of secondary education. AI is explicitly included. A core objective prescribes that pupils explore AI, in secondary education including both its possibilities and limitations.
For staff, the requirement has therefore become looser, but for pupils it is now more visible. This creates some tension, as pupils become AI literate through teachers who must first be so themselves.
Two frameworks, two target groups
There are now two commonly used frameworks for AI literacy. The AI-GO framework from Npuls is written for secondary vocational, higher professional, and university education and mainly describes what the teacher and the programme need to be able to do. The AILit framework from the OECD and the European Commission, published this summer, is aimed at pupils in foundational education.
The regulation itself does describe AI literacy, but does not specify what level is sufficient. In our own training, we use the AI-GO framework, precisely because it makes concrete what a teacher must be able to do before passing it on to pupils.
Why we have organised it this way from day one
That is exactly why at EduGPT we have never offered the AI literacy training as a separate, optional course. It is included in the licence, every quarter, delivered by our own certified trainers. Not because the law simply requires it, but because AI literacy fades as soon as you stop maintaining it.
The same principle will soon apply to pupils. With the Prompt Companion within EduGPT, teachers themselves design the AI Companions with which pupils learn to work, so that AI literacy does not become a separate lesson, but simply part of the curriculum.
Sources
AI-GO framework (Npuls), for secondary vocational/higher professional/university education:
- Official page: https://npuls.nl/kennisbank/ai-go-een-raamwerk-voor-ai-geletterdheid-in-het-onderwijs
- Direct PDF: https://npuls.nl/_assets/a9b3b8e6-3faa-41fb-bf0c-87fbd38d9454/AI-GO%20Raamwerk.pdf
- Practical translation "AI-GO in Action": https://npuls.nl/kennisbank/ai-go-in-actie
AILit framework (OECD + European Commission), for foundational education, published 17 June 2026, title "Empowering Learners for the Age of AI":
- Official framework site: https://ailiteracyframework.org/
- PDF: https://ailiteracyframework.org/pdfs/framework_pdf/AILF_en.pdf
- OECD publication page: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/empowering-learners-for-the-age-of-ai_65cd27d4-en.html
- EU news item (European Education Area): https://education.ec.europa.eu/node/3537