From 1 September 2026, a new AI training component will be introduced into the Russian school curriculum as part of the subject “Computer Science.” Students will be taught the principles of neural networks and trained to critically analyse AI-generated answers and recognise errors. Textbooks on artificial intelligence for secondary schools have already been included in the Ministry of Education’s approved list.
The new AI course will initially be available to students who study computer science at an advanced level and who participate in Olympiads; however, the Ministry of Education has indicated that the programme may subsequently be extended to all students. This selective rollout means that in the 2026-2027 school year, AI education will reach a subset rather than all school-age learners.
Supporting this rollout, Russia is preparing a unified computer science textbook with an emphasis on domestic technologies, and more than 7,000 computer science teachers had already received training in AI tools during 2025. The Russian national team also won eight medals at the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence in China in 2025, demonstrating existing high-end AI education capacity at the elite level. In 2026, approximately 6,500 students will enrol in specialist IT and AI university programmes, with over 840 retraining programmes running across 139 universities.