The Next Phase of OpenAI’s Education for Countries Program
At the Education World Forum in London, OpenAI shared early progress from its “Education for Countries” program and welcomed Singapore to the initiative.
The AI agent era is already here. More than 900 million people use ChatGPT every week, and more than 4 million use Codex. Agents can put greater creativity, intelligence, and technical capability into the hands of every student. They can help young people turn ideas into action, pursue goals that once felt out of reach, and become the next generation of builders and doers. OpenAI is deeply focused on understanding how AI affects cognition, learning, and development over time. As these tools evolve rapidly, responsible deployment cannot be left to a reactive approach. We need government-led, large-scale research collaborations to adapt AI for educational settings, build trust in responsible deployment, and gather evidence for safe and effective use. And that requires close collaboration with educators.
This is the new model introduced by OpenAI’s Education for Countries launch in Davos earlier this year. The first participating countries formed a community united by the shared ambition to improve learning outcomes and expand economic opportunity. Estonia, Greece, Italy CRUI, Slovakia, Trinidad and Tobago, Kazakhstan, the UAE, and Jordan are now advancing work around three pillars:
- Research-backed deployment: We begin deployment through research partnerships using OpenAI’s Learning Outcomes Measurement Suite. This allows governments, educators, and OpenAI to understand AI’s impact on learners, adapt the technology, and build evidence together around what works.
- Localized AI tools for learning: System-level access to safe, compliant, and privacy-conscious ChatGPT, Codex, and the OpenAI API platform, designed for education and learning.
- Teacher training and empowerment: We help educators use these tools confidently and responsibly through AI literacy, professional development, and certification.
Sharing progress from the first participating countries
Estonia, a digital pioneer with one of the world’s leading education systems and a thriving startup ecosystem, is advancing a nationwide, research-driven ChatGPT Edu rollout through the AI Leap Foundation, led by the Ministry of Education. The effort localizes the experience for schools, supports educators, and lays the foundation for responsible deployment. ChatGPT Edu is already available to more than 20,000 students and 4,600 teachers.
In the next phase, the focus is on localizing tools, building sovereign capacity, and measuring real-world impact. OpenAI is working with AI Leap, the University of Tartu, and Stanford University to study how AI affects learning for more than 20,000 students in real classroom settings, and we are committed to publishing the results. Beyond this research, we are also investing in teacher empowerment and upskilling because we believe educators are central to responsible AI adoption in the classroom. This includes professional learning communities as well as developer events like the recent Presidential Codex Hackathon, where more than 150 participants across around 30 OpenAI-mentored teams built classroom tools such as a math feedback coach and an AI STEM mentor.
“AI Leap and OpenAI are bringing world-class AI expertise to Estonia’s education system while studying how these tools affect learning, thinking, and long-term skill development. We believe next-generation AI, including agents and tools like Codex, can support more personalized and self-directed learning while continuing to strengthen critical thinking, autonomous learning, and the role of teachers. We’re glad to help build an approach that can serve as a reference for other education systems.”
— Laura Kalda, COO of AI Leap
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Within the first cohort of participating countries, we are already seeing concrete signs of positive impact.
- In Jordan, more than 1 million students and over 100,000 teachers are using Siraj, the AI education assistant. This is part of a broader national plan led by the National Council for Future Technology to deploy AI-powered tools that deliver visible improvements across public services.
- In Greece, the OpenAI for Greece AI startup accelerator selected 21 AI-native startups from 240 applications, helping cultivate the next generation of founders, reduce brain drain, and connect national ambition to new companies and new ideas.
- In Kazakhstan, more than 84,000 educators have already completed AI readiness training as part of a nationwide ChatGPT Edu rollout across all 20 regions. Among surveyed educators, 9 out of 10 said ChatGPT Edu is useful for their work, and 44,000 active educators sent 1.5 million prompts in the first month.
- In Slovakia, early university surveys showed that more than 90% of educators reported productivity gains, saving about five hours per week. The Ministry of Education team used Workspace Agents to draft proposed revisions to teacher professional standards tied to the national AI competency framework, compressing work that would have taken months into just hours.
Singapore joins Education for Countries
Singapore’s education system is among the best in the world, and its young people are also highly active AI users. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, about 43% of ChatGPT use is related to learning and education. The next step is to help students and educators use AI to support teaching and learning, build AI literacy, improve learning outcomes, and prepare young people for the future labor market.
Through OpenAI for Singapore, we are pleased to continue working with Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE). The Ministry has been exploring a range of AI tools from multiple partners to support teaching and learning in practical ways. OpenAI is supporting use cases developed by the MOE and GovTech teams that enable more personalized learning, such as helping students learn their mother tongue in a more interactive way. We are also supporting educators through hands-on workshops and practical sessions as part of OpenAI Academy Singapore, and we are running a Codex hackathon for teachers. This helps ensure AI adoption is educator-led and built on a responsible, equitable foundation.
As Education for Countries continues to evolve, we will keep helping national governments move from tool adoption to evidence-based deployment. By co-designing with learning scientists and researchers, measuring impact over time, and sharing what we learn, we aim to help governments scale effective practices.
To support a teacher-first approach, we will soon launch Phase 1 of OpenAI Luminaries, a new educator engagement program focused on co-design with teachers, practical classroom resources, and cross-country teacher-led sharing.
OpenAI is now actively identifying the next country partners and plans to announce them later this year. Contact us