From Ambition to Impact: Closing the AI Readiness Gap in Europe and Central Asia's Education Systems

The rapid entry of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Europe and Central Asia's (ECA) classrooms has outpaced the ability of education systems to govern its use. A new World Bank Education and Skills Working Paper No. 28, published on August 25, 2026, by authors Rita Almeida, Ciro Avitabile, Cristobal Cobo, and Alberto Muñoz-Nájar, explores how to close the AI readiness gap in the region. Focusing on Bulgaria, Romania, and Türkiye, the study provides an in-depth diagnosis of governance, infrastructure, teacher capacity, and equity, highlighting a stark gap between national policy ambitions and everyday classroom realities.

Divergent Pathways to AI Integration

The three countries show distinct strategic trajectories. Türkiye utilizes centralized and proactive leadership under the Ministry of National Education (MoNE), guided by its National AI Strategy 2021–2025 and the AI in Education Policy Document and Action Plan 2025–2029. Central to its strategy is the Education Technology Incubation and Innovation Center (ETKİM). Bulgaria has set strategic foundations through the AI Development Concept to 2030 and the Strategic Framework for Education 2021–2030, introducing the "Guidelines for AI use in schools" in February 2024. Romania relies on an infrastructure-led transformation outlined in its SMART.Edu Strategy 2021–2027 and the National AI Strategy 2024–2027, funded largely by the European Union’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).

AI in Action and Implications for Equity

Classroom adoption is growing rapidly across three key user groups. Students use adaptive tools like BRIO.ro and LearnMate (Romania), BgGPT (Bulgaria), and the EBA Student Assistant (Türkiye). For teachers, native-language tools such as LIVRESQ in Romania and Class Buddy in Bulgaria assist in lesson planning, while Türkiye’s Teacher Information Network (ÖBA) has trained over 157,000 teachers. Administrators utilize platforms like Shkolo.bg (Bulgaria), Kinderpedia (Romania), and e-Okul (Türkiye) to optimize workflows. From an equity lens, these innovations support vulnerable groups: Türkiye's AI Teacher Assistant provides translation tools critical for integrating over one million school-age Syrian refugee children, while Bulgaria's BgGPT represents the first large-scale generative AI model trained entirely on the Bulgarian language.

Four Critical Systemic Bottlenecks

The assessment, completed in approximately 80 working days (about three months), reveals four shared barriers:

1. The "Adoption Ceiling": Only 3% of teachers in Türkiye have achieved advanced "Pioneer" digital status, and 70% of Bulgarian educators function at basic or intermediate competence levels. Tenth-grade students also show low proficiency in critical reasoning and information literacy.

2. Systemic Friction and Data Gridlock: Traditional standardized exams, like Türkiye's High School Entrance Exam (LGS), do not evaluate digital skills. Additionally, Türkiye’s Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK) imposes stricter constraints on cross-border data transfers than the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

3. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Deficit: Fragmented procurement and a lack of local test-bedding platforms limit scalable solutions, with Türkiye’s ETKİM being a rare exception.

4. The Evidence Deficit: At the time of the study, no government entity had institutionalized evaluations of AI's systemic impact on educational outcomes, leaving scaling decisions without clear data on cost-effectiveness.

Policy Recommendations: Micro and Macro Priorities

To avoid high costs and widening inequalities, the World Bank outlines key priorities. Nationally, governments must strengthen micro-level foundations by diversifying evaluation tools, utilizing randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and evaluating total cost of ownership. On a macro level, systems must secure sustainable funding for 4-to-5-year device renewal cycles, integrate AI literacy into curricula, and establish public-private collaboration hubs to match startups with pedagogical needs. Without these enablers, the rapid expansion of AI risks generating disconnected pilots rather than durable educational reforms.

References & Sources

For further reading, consult the official reports:

• Bulgaria Country Report: Spasova et al., 2025
• World Bank Education Topic: World Bank Education
• OECD AI Principles: OECD AI Policy Observatory