The government announced an expanded summer school program on Wednesday that will include artificial intelligence training, part of a government effort to help students make up learning gaps from the war while preparing them for a technology-driven future.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Education Minister Yoav Kisch said the “Summer School” program will be extended through the end of July for kindergarten and first- through third-grade students. The decision falls short of Kisch’s earlier pledge to extend the program by three weeks for all students through ninth grade.
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Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Yoav Kisch
(Photo: GPO)
The plan will run from July 1 to July 31, adding 10 days to the regular program. It will focus on small-group instruction in language, math and English, while also incorporating technology and AI skills.
According to a presentation shown at the announcement, the program will be tailored by age, “with the focus shifting from enriched child care to intensive technological learning” as students get older.
Students in fourth through sixth grades will also have summer activities, but those programs will not be extended. For seventh- through ninth-grade students, the program will run only from June 21 to June 30.
Netanyahu framed the plan as part of Israel’s broader push in cyber, AI and innovation. “When I spoke about cyber more than a decade ago, they called me a ‘virtual prime minister.’ Today, we are No. 2 in the world,” Netanyahu said. “When I talk today about artificial intelligence, they say I have a ‘sixth finger of AI.’ But when you are right, you do what is right for the State of Israel.”
“This coming summer vacation, we will operate special frameworks for Israeli children, and as part of that, we will train them in artificial intelligence,” he said.
Smotrich said the expanded program was designed not only to replace school days lost during the war, but also to “accelerate capabilities and integrate artificial intelligence.”
“We have to understand that AI is going to change our entire lives, especially the entire education system,” Smotrich said.
Kisch said the government will invest more than 1 billion shekels in education during the summer months.
Parent participation fees will range from 5 shekels to 30 shekels, depending on income level, Kisch said.
Kisch had sought to extend the program by three weeks and include students in fourth through ninth grades following the war with Iran. But Finance Ministry officials warned there was no available budget source for the broader plan, saying it had not been coordinated with them and “appeared to have been pulled out of thin air.”