AI Literacy in France: What Is the French Framework, and How Can Schools Go Further?

 

From the national framework to classroom experimentation: Pix, teachers, and complementary learning environments.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of everyday school practices. In France, AI education is taking shape around several complementary components: a national framework for use, the Digital Skills Reference Framework (CRCN), a Pix competency framework dedicated to AI, awareness and training pathways, and gradual integration across subjects.

The French model does not yet rely on a standalone annual AI literacy curriculum from kindergarten through the final year of secondary school. Nevertheless, it is evolving rapidly: regular AI instruction is planned for the start of the 2027 school year in the first year of upper secondary school (seconde). The challenge now is to translate these directions into concrete, progressive, and assessable learning experiences.

This issue also extends beyond AI alone: for Mexty, AI literacy is the first application of a broader ambition to provide a teacher-led, multidisciplinary learning engine.

 

1. A National Framework for Responsible Use

In June 2025, the French Ministry of National Education published a Framework for the Use of AI in Education [1]. It sets out the principles that should guide practice: educational added value, critical thinking, transparency, data protection, academic integrity, attention to environmental impacts, and the continued central role of teachers.

It provides for age-appropriate progression. In primary education, pupils discover basic concepts without directly using generative AI. From the equivalent of eighth grade (4e), limited educational use becomes possible under teacher supervision and guidance. In upper secondary school, more independent use may be considered within an explicitly defined learning framework. Using AI to complete an assignment without authorization or personal engagement may constitute academic misconduct.

The framework primarily addresses one question: under what conditions can AI be used at school responsibly and in ways that support learning?

 

2. Pix and the Common Foundation of Digital Skills

Pix is France’s public service for developing, assessing, and certifying digital skills. It is based on the CRCN, whose competencies are cross-curricular and can be developed in several subjects: technology, science, French, history and geography, digital sciences and technology (SNT), and others.

Pix certification does not validate a separate school subject; it attests to a level of digital proficiency. Schools deploy the learning pathways and track their results through Pix Orga. Pix thus helps establish a shared national foundation.

3. Pix AI Pathways: Understand, Evaluate, and Use

Pix has also developed a competency framework dedicated to artificial intelligence [2]. It covers AI fundamentals, language models, writing prompts, hallucinations, bias, data, information verification, ethics, and independent judgment.

A service note published in the Official Bulletin of February 5, 2026 [3] makes the Pix AI learning pathways mandatory for students in 4e (approximately eighth grade), seconde (approximately tenth grade), and the first year of the CAP vocational qualification, in public schools and private schools under contract, with gradual implementation during the 2025–2026 and 2026–2027 school years.

These pathways combine an initial diagnostic assessment with short training sequences adapted to each student’s level. They help develop critical and responsible digital literacy alongside classroom learning.

 

4. Start of the 2027 School Year: AI Enters Regular Instruction in Seconde

A major structural change is being added to this system. The ministry has asked the Higher Council for Curricula to revise the SNT syllabus in seconde to include AI education. According to the formal request published in September 2026, from the start of the 2027 school year, seconde students are to receive one hour per week dedicated to AI, within a total of two weekly hours of SNT [4].

At the time of writing, this is an announced change whose precise translation into the curriculum is still underway. For schools, however, it makes the need for teaching sequences, resources, activities, and assessments that teachers can use very concrete.

In parallel, the ministry has announced the development of a sovereign AI solution to support teachers’ work, particularly lesson preparation and assessment [5]. This project is part of a broader effort to strengthen public educational tools.

 

5. The French Framework: Complementary Responsibilities

The system can be represented in simplified form by the diagram below. It illustrates the different roles without suggesting that all interactions between stakeholders follow a strictly linear chain.

The key is to align national guidelines, skills development, student support, and schools’ pedagogical autonomy.

6. Moving from the Framework to Practice

Knowing the definition of a hallucination does not necessarily mean knowing how to detect one. Likewise, knowing how to write a prompt is not enough to understand why an answer varies depending on context, supplied sources, or the model used.

Strong AI literacy develops when students can apply concepts in a learning situation: comparing, experimenting, verifying, explaining, and exercising judgment.

Some examples of possible learning activities:

• Compare several models: submit the same question to different AI systems, then examine differences and the sources used.

• Vary the context: observe how wording, the assigned role, or instructions affect the answer.

• Find the hallucination: identify a questionable claim, verify it, and justify the conclusion.

• Compare a general answer with one grounded in reference sources validated by the teacher.

• Study bias: analyze how data, wording, or perspective may influence results.

The teacher sets the objective, selects resources, supervises the experiment, and organizes critical reflection. AI becomes an object of inquiry, not merely a tool for generating answers.

 

7. How Mexty Can Support Schools

Mexty positions itself as a learning environment that enables teachers to design, adapt, and deploy complete learning pathways based on their own documents and educational goals. AI literacy is a particularly natural application because it lends itself to direct experimentation.

A school can therefore build editable learning pathways combining lessons, interactive activities, AI experiments, projects, and assessments. In 4e, a pathway might cover generative AI, prompt writing, hallucinations, bias, personal data, information verification, and responsible use. In seconde, it could explore language models, response comparison, reliability, grounding in validated sources, and project work in greater depth.

Complementarity with the national ecosystem lies primarily in three practical possibilities:

• Enabling active experimentation and projects sustained over time;

• Allowing teachers to build and modify content using their own resources;

• Providing an environment designed to supervise students’ interactions with AI according to rules established by the school and the ministry.

This last point requires verifiable safeguards, particularly when minors use the platform: data protection, hosting arrangements, choice of models, access controls, transparency, and GDPR compliance. These elements must be documented in any school deployment project; they cannot be reduced to a marketing promise.

The teacher’s role remains central: setting objectives, validating resources, adapting activities, guiding experimentation, and assessing learning outcomes.

 

8. Beyond AI Literacy: A Multidisciplinary Learning Engine

For Mexty, AI literacy is an entry point, not a limit. The platform is designed as a multidisciplinary learning engine: in science, languages, humanities, and other fields, teachers can organize a complete pathway (lessons, activities, assessments) and then adjust support based on students’ responses and needs.

This ambition matters: the goal is not to multiply tools dedicated to a single concept or technology, but to help schools create interactive, reusable, and editable learning experiences while keeping teachers in control of pedagogical choices.

Conclusion: From Guided Use to Genuine Understanding

France is gradually laying the foundations of an AI education policy: a framework for use, digital competencies, Pix AI pathways, and, from 2027, dedicated instruction within SNT in seconde. The goal is no longer simply for students to use AI, but for them to understand it, question it, and exercise independent judgment.

“I understand what AI can do. I know it can make mistakes. I check its answers, recognize certain biases, and know when my own judgment must take priority.”

Mexty aims to help bridge the gap between knowledge and competence by giving teachers the means to experiment, build, and assess, both in AI literacy and in other subjects. This literacy must also include digital sustainability: learning to use AI when it provides real value, while recognizing that it consumes resources and has an environmental cost. Teaching AI therefore also means learning to use it thoughtfully, critically, and responsibly.

 Official References

[5] Ministry — Measures to support students’ and teachers’ use of AI; announcement concerning sovereign AI. https://www.education.gouv.fr/intelligence-artificielle-au-service-de-l-education-des-mesures-ambitieuses-pour-accompagner-les-462591

[4] Higher Council for Curricula — Revision of the seconde SNT curriculum (September 9, 2026). https://www.education.gouv.fr/le-conseil-superieur-des-programmes/revision-du-programme-de-sciences-numeriques-et-technologie-snt-de-seconde-505738

[3] Official Bulletin No. 6 of February 5, 2026 — Mandatory Pix AI pathways, service note MENE2527173N. https://www.education.gouv.fr/bo/2026/Hebdo6/MENE2527173N

[2] Pix — Artificial Intelligence Competency Framework. https://pix.fr/competences-intelligence-artificielle/

[1] Ministry of National Education — Framework for the Use of AI in Education (June 13, 2025). https://www.education.gouv.fr/cadre-d-usage-de-l-ia-en-education-450647

If you enjoyed this, you’ll love our next articles How UAE Schools Can Turn the AI Literacy Framework into a Practical KG–12 Program