The Norwegian government announced a national recommendation on the use of artificial intelligence in schools on 19 June 2026. The announcement came from the Office of the Prime Minister together with the Ministry of Education and Research, and the Directorate for Education and Training was directed to publish and implement the advice. The measure is a recommendation rather than a statutory prohibition, and it applies from the autumn 2026 school start.
The recommendation is graded by school level. Pupils in grades 1 to 7 should in all essential respects not be given access to generative AI in their schoolwork. Pupils in grades 8 to 10 may be introduced to generative AI gradually and cautiously, and only once teachers have the competence to guide that use. Upper secondary pupils should learn purposeful use of generative AI in preparation for further education and work. Pupils who depend on AI based assistive tools for adapted instruction keep access. The Directorate for Education and Training published its advice on 25 June 2026 and said it would extend that advice before 1 October 2026.
Suppliers of learning platforms and digital teaching materials to Norwegian municipalities carry the operational weight of this. A vendor selling a reading or arithmetic product into primary schools has to be able to show which parts of it call a generative model, because generative features sitting inside an otherwise ordinary tool are the point the Directorate has said it will address. Municipal school owners procuring devices and software, and publishers running both paper and digital editions, are the parties who have to act before the extended advice lands.
The Directorate for Education and Training said the advice would be expanded before 1 October 2026, and the scope of the exceptions is what that expansion turns on. Two questions are open on the published text: where the line falls between a generative feature and an ordinary automated one inside a single product, and how the adapted instruction exception is documented at school level. Nothing in the recommendation creates a sanction for a school that departs from it.
Licentium advises education technology suppliers, publishers and public sector buyers on AI rules that vary by jurisdiction and by user age. Work we undertake includes reviewing product feature sets against national AI guidance, drafting procurement and supplier disclosure terms, and assessing where embedded model use triggers age based restrictions.