MEN Study Finds AI Platform Boosts Students' Math Scores

Poland's Ministry of National Education (MEN) has presented the results of one of the largest studies to date on the use of artificial intelligence in Polish primary schools. Over 11 thousand fourth- and fifth-grade students spent several months learning math partly with the help of the zeszyt.online platform, and the group using the tool scored higher than the group taught with traditional methods.

What Is zeszyt.online

The zeszyt.online platform was built by a team at the Faculty of Mathematics and Information Science at Warsaw University of Technology. The system works like a smart exercise notebook: it analyzes a student's answers, identifies where difficulties arise, and selects follow-up tasks matched to the student's level and way of working. Teachers retain control over the process, since they choose the scope of material and track class progress through a teacher panel.

That sets the tool apart from popular chatbots, which students can use to instantly solve a problem without understanding it. Zeszyt.online was designed as a teaching aid built into the lesson itself, not as a substitute for the student's own work.

How the Study Was Conducted

More than 20 thousand students moving from fourth to fifth grade were invited to take part in the study, split into an experimental group (using the platform) and a control group (taught with traditional methods). In the end, complete measurement data was collected for 11,439 students, including 5,958 from the experimental group and 5,481 from the control group. 479 schools in 113 municipalities took part, and the participants were split almost evenly by gender.

Both groups started out with comparable math skills. By the end of the study, students using zeszyt.online achieved higher scores than the control group, which IBE-PIB considers evidence of the tool's positive impact on learning math at this age.

How Students and Teachers Rate the Tool

Among students who actually used the platform, 74.9 percent said they enjoy using it, and 81.7 percent rated it as easy to use. 67.6 percent said the tool helped them learn math. A large majority, 87.3 percent, want to keep working with the system, and 85.3 percent would like a regular, weekly hour of math with it.

Teachers were similarly enthusiastic: 73.1 percent said they definitely want to keep using the tool, and another 23.7 percent said "probably yes." That means nearly all teachers who took part in the study see value in continuing to work with the platform.

In the age of AI, it's important to use technology in a way that brings real benefits to students - Katarzyna Lubnauer, Deputy Minister of Education

Ministry's Position and Next Steps

Deputy Minister of Education Katarzyna Lubnauer stressed that artificial intelligence is meant to support teachers, not replace them. The ministry announced that schools can already continue working with the platform, and that purchases of this kind of digital tool can be financed under the government's Cyfrowy Uczeń (Digital Student) program. The full study report is expected to be published before the summer break.

This is one of the first cases in which Poland's education ministry has based its decision to back a specific AI tool on a controlled study with a control group, rather than solely on a vendor's claims or an uncompared pilot program.

The results contrast with earlier reports of AI's mixed impact on learning, including studies showing that using chatbots for homework can be linked to worse exam results when students rely on ready-made answers instead of working through problems themselves. Unlike a general-purpose chatbot, zeszyt.online is designed to build understanding of the material step by step rather than hand over finished solutions.

For math teachers and school principals, the study's results signal that a well-designed AI tool tailored to a specific subject and age group can genuinely help with learning, not just speed up homework. For local governments, it also means a concrete funding path for buying such systems through an existing program, without waiting for new AI-in-education regulations.