Can Israel’s Startups Bring Excitement Back to Education?

Education is boring for a lot of students. Israel has a very well-educated society, with 47% of people age 25 – 34 having a tertiary degree. Israeli education is booming, and it surpasses that of the United Kingdom and United States (for adult education).

It’s an exciting time for Israel because higher education and a leading startup culture allow us to be at the forefront of several industries.

But is Israel doing anything to bring excitement back to education?

Absolutely.

I remember being in school, and there wasn’t much in the way of innovation. I read books, went to class, made notes, studied, and the cycle continued through the entirety of my education. Kids today have the Internet at their fingertips with the ability to look up facts and learn virtually anything they want at blazing speed.

The problem is that a lot of youth sit in their rooms playing games, or they sit at the dinner table rapidly moving their thumbs playing Fortnite or any other game they can get their hands on.

Israel’s startups are taking an innovative approach under MindCET. If you haven’t heard of MindCET, it’s an organization that works with entrepreneurs and educators, bringing them together to develop technology for education.

EdTech, education tech, startups have been assisted by MindCET since 2012, and the technology coming out of these startups is very impressive.

The five-month accelerator program offered through MindCET is what is propelling the industry, and the program includes founders and teams meeting with mentors, tech experts, customers, entrepreneurs and investors to discuss the next steps for their projects.

Through this assistance, we’re finding a lot of startups focusing on two primary areas: AI and gaming.

Demo Day, an event that was held in March, featured a few very exciting startups that have the potential to make education fun and exciting again.

Gamify is a very interesting startup, and the company’s platform allows children as young as six to create their own educational and recreational mobile games. The goal of the platform is to help kids learn about technology, collaborative coding and entrepreneurship. The platform allows kids to express their creativity like never before.

Kids have already used the platform to create over 5,000 games, and there is a pilot program at 20 Israeli schools to help kids learn to code.

Mathika is another great startup, and it’s also the only startup that focuses exclusively on math in the program. What Mathika does is help anyone, even those well-versed in math, enhance their skills. The self-funded platform creates game-based environments that all revolve around math. Students are encouraged to keep learning on their own through the platform, and it’s been a major success so far.

Language is not a barrier in the math world, and the platform has been used in India and South Africa. Pilot programs for Mathika are already taking place in four schools.

Texti, Storyball and ELA are all very exciting startups that have the potential to make learning fun and exciting again. Israel’s startup culture is thriving, and when it comes to education, it looks like the trend will continue to shape the education world, too.