by Daphna Tamir
Israel’s Athena Fund has launched a new program – Laptop for Every English Teacher in Israel – in which English teachers in Israel will receive laptops and 120 hours of professional training. The new program aims to distribute 13,000 laptops in the coming years.
The first English teachers to receive laptops are in the city of Lod and at the beginning of February, English teachers in the city of Ramla will also join the program.
Mastery of English at a good level, especially in the Internet age and in the global environment in which we live, is a basic condition for integrating into many professions in the labor market and for daily conduct in various fields,
said Uri Ben-Ari, president and founder of the Athena Fund.
Providing English teachers with laptops and professional training will enable them to improve teaching of the language, use various visual and audio aids, prepare lesson plans, and find various teaching materials on the Internet. This will enable them to provide their students with the knowledge and proficiency in the language necessary for their success in later life.
The program is being implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Education’s chief inspector for English Language Education – Dr. Tziona Levi, and Roni Dayan – director of the Information Technology Division. The distribution of laptops to English teachers in Lod and Ramla is made possible thanks to the contribution of the Athena Fund and the Wolfson Foundation, and due to the close partnership with the Professional Advancement Fund of Israel Teachers Union, Bank Massad, Israel’s Ministry of Education and the local authorities where the computers are being distributed.
To date, Athena has distributed laptops, tablets and iPads to more than 18,000 teachers and kindergarten teachers in 1,412 schools and kindergartens in 127 local authorities across Israel. Each teacher also receives 120 hours of techno-pedagogical training from professional instructors with support from the Ministry of Education.
About the Athena Fund
Established in 2006, the Athena Fund is a nonprofit organization working to promote the empowerment of teachers in Israel by providing them with tools for self-fulfillment and professional advancement. The Athena Fund was founded by several prominent business leaders under the direction of President Uri Ben-Ari (CEO of UBA Ventures and former Executive VP of Ness Technologies). The Athena Fund’s programs include Laptop Computer for Every Teacher in Israel (launched in 2007), Laptop Computer for Every Kindergarten Teacher (2012), Tablet for Every Science Teacher (2014), iPad for Every Special Education Teacher (2015) and Laptop Computer for Every English Teacher (2018).
For more information please visit http://www.athenafund.org/index.php?categoryId=8561
