The children of 2026 are learning with methods of the last century | Anat Knafo

Anat Knafo argues that the Israeli education system is archaic and not adapted to the changing technological and economic reality. According to her, instead of strategically cultivating human capital, the system is trapped in firefighting, lacking vision and long-term planning. She calls for change that includes raising the status of teachers, adapting personalized learning, dismantling bureaucracy, and imparting skills such as entrepreneurship and critical thinking.

Anat Knafo, in an opinion column in Maariv, argues that the Israeli education system remains archaic and is not adapted to the age of the internet and artificial intelligence. According to her, while knowledge is accessible to all and the economy is changing at a dizzying pace, the system is frozen and based on methods of the last century. Knafo accuses the system of lacking vision and long-term planning, and describes a state of 'constant firefighting' that harms the future generation. She calls for fundamental change that includes raising the status of teachers, dismantling bureaucracy, moving from supervision to development, personalizing learning to each child's talent, and imparting relevant skills such as entrepreneurship, critical thinking, teamwork, mastery of technological tools, and financial literacy. Knafo points to leading models in the world as examples of the possibility of change: Singapore, which invested in developing human capital and empowers teachers as designers of thinking, and Denmark, where education is based on trust, autonomy, and project-based learning. She calls for freeing schools to operate as innovation centers and turning teachers from supervisors into mentors.