The recommendation, published in the Diário da República, outlines the CNE's position on AI in education, highlighting potential learning benefits and administrative gains, while warning of an uncritical, disorderly integration.

With regard to pedagogy, the Ministry of Education’s advisory body suggests introducing AI literacy from the earliest stages of schooling “in a progressive manner appropriate to developmental stages,” utilising it as a tool to reinforce traditional literacies such as reading, writing, and numeracy.

Against cognitive atrophy risk

Warning against the risk of “cognitive atrophy”—where students delegate to AI processes that they should instead internalise—the CNE emphasises that these tools must not serve as a substitute for the “intellectual effort required to construct them.”

The CNE insists on clear pedagogical guidelines to define when AI use fosters student development and when it hinders the development of essential competencies, safeguarding cognitive autonomy while embracing technology's benefits.

With students in mind, the CNE also recommends, as one of several urgent measures, that policies aimed at promoting school well-being specifically address the risks technological dependence poses to students' mental health.

Revising teacher's training programs

As for teachers, the experts advocate revising initial teacher training programs to make it mandatory to integrate AI literacy modules encompassing digital literacy, computational thinking, critical data literacy, and AI ethics; they also call for investment in continuous professional development programs.

With regard to infrastructure and digital sovereignty, the CNE emphasises that universal access to connectivity across all educational settings, as well as access to high-quality digital equipment for all students, are imperatives. To this end, it suggests implementing a plan for continuous maintenance and updates to prevent hardware and software obsolescence.

Technological dependency

Expressing concern about external technological dependency, the CNE advocates the preferential adoption of open-source, auditable applications—specifically those that enable the tracking and explanation of integrated AI models and offer configuration capabilities for teachers.

According to the councillors—who also recommend the medium-term creation of a national educational cloud—this approach is the one "that best reconciles pedagogical innovation, transparency, and public oversight regarding the tools used in schools."

Another dimension addressed in the CNE’s recommendation concerns the use of AI to support administrative tasks. In this context, experts underscore the need to ensure that no decision with a significant impact on students' lives is made based solely on automated AI systems; instead, they insist on the absolute necessity of qualified human validation and the right of appeal.

Ethical issues

Regarding ethical and monitoring issues, the document highlights the need for algorithmic transparency in contracts with technology providers for the educational system, as well as guarantees that devices and applications used in school settings do not improperly track data from minors.

In September, the Government established a working group dedicated to "Digital and AI in Education" to study and present proposals regarding the role of digital technologies in education within Portugal