AI to teach English to all Israeli middle school pupils from next year

Israel’s Ministry of Education has announced a major expansion of its artificial intelligence initiative in schools, rolling out a pilot programme that has previously run in around 28 schools to the entire middle school sector. The programme, known as “Project 720”, will integrate AI into teaching English, mathematics and science across all junior secondary institutions from the coming academic year.

Under the new system, pupils will use AI-powered tools that can identify individual learning gaps and strengths in real time, allowing the technology to provide targeted support to help each student catch up on material they have struggled with. The AI system is designed to personalise the learning experience, adapting to each pupil’s pace and areas of difficulty.

The expansion marks a significant shift in how Israel’s education system is approaching technology adoption, particularly in response to growing recognition that artificial intelligence could help address educational inequalities. However, the announcement has raised questions about the role of human teachers in classrooms where AI is taking on increasingly significant responsibilities for instruction and student assessment.

Ministers and education officials have positioned the initiative as complementary to traditional teaching rather than a replacement for educators, though details about how teachers will be redeployed or retrained as part of the rollout remain unclear. The full scope of how the technology will be integrated into existing curricula and teacher training programmes is expected to be outlined in coming weeks.

Source: Ynet — Original article in Hebrew.