(MENAFNEditorial)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Winners of the inaugural Global EdTech Prize announced at World Schools Summit in Abu Dhabi
• Imagine Worldwide Tablet-Based Foundational Learning Programme from Imagine Worldwide in Africa has won the inaugural Global EdTech Prize in the Non-Profits category.
• Brisk from Brisk Teaching in the USA won the Global EdTech Prize in the Start-Ups category.
• Matific Maths Game from Matific in Australia won the Global EdTech Prize in the Majors category.
• Founded this year by T4 Education with the support of Owl Ventures and Digital Promise, the Global EdTech Prize recognises trailblazing tools grappling with the most crucial challenges in education
The winners of the inaugural Global EdTech Prize were announced today at the World Schools Summit at Yasmina British Academy, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Founded this year by T4 Education, with the support of Owl Ventures, the Global EdTech Prize recognises those trailblazing solutions that are driving change and grappling with the most crucial challenges in today’s classrooms.
Imagine Worldwide Tablet-Based Foundational Learning Programme from Imagine Worldwide in Africa has won the inaugural Global EdTech Prize in the Non-Profits category.
Brisk from Brisk Teaching in the USA won the Global EdTech Prize in the Start-Ups category.
Matific Maths Game from Matific in Australia won the Global EdTech Prize in the Majors category.
The Top 10 finalists for each of the three categories were invited to the World Schools Summit – hosted by T4 Education, Aldar Education and the Emirates Foundation and supported by CIFF, Google, Microsoft, and HP – where they showcased their work before an Expert Panel comprising leading figures in the technology and education sectors including investors and policymakers from around the world.
The Expert Panel then narrowed down the Final 3 per category who went on to present their products and tools before educators at the World Schools Summit. Educators voted by secret ballot to determine the winner of each category, with the winners announced live on stage at the culmination of the summit.
Vikas Pota, Founder of T4 Education and the Global EdTech Prize, said:
“Congratulations to Imagine Worldwide Tablet-Based Foundational Learning Programme from Imagine Worldwide in Africa; Brisk from Brisk Teaching in the USA; and Matific Maths Game from Matific in Australia on winning the inaugural Global EdTech Prize. Your work is a crucial contribution to the cause of improving education, and everything that can achieve for all of humanity.
“We established the Global EdTech Prize to help scale the innovations that are making a real difference to the most intractable educational challenges, from enhancing literacy development to building lifelong skills, supporting social mobility, and closing learning gaps. And we ensured it is judged by educators themselves, because they know what works best in their classrooms.
“I hope this award will now allow you to spread your impact across the world.”
Amit A. Patel, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Owl Ventures, said:
“My warmest congratulations to Imagine Worldwide, Brisk, and Matific on winning the first-ever Global EdTech Prize. By harnessing technology in the service of education, your work deserves recognition worldwide. I hope that through this prestigious award, policymakers, educators, and changemakers alike see the impact of your innovation and help scale the transformation we need.”
About Imagine Worldwide Tablet-Based Foundational Learning Programme from Imagine Worldwide
Imagine Worldwide’s goal is to solve the literacy and numeracy crisis for millions of children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Imagine Worldwide partners with philanthropists, governments, organisations, and communities to provide child-directed, tablet-based learning that is accessible, effective, and affordable. Imagine Worldwide is currently partnering with the governments of Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania to scale its tablet-based learning system country-wide
Imagine Worldwide’s learning solution is designed to work in the most challenging environments and operates without internet connectivity and does not require grid-power or highly-skilled teachers. A child who has never seen technology and is illiterate can start their literacy and numeracy journey by listening to their own teacher avatar, via headphones, guiding them in the national language of instruction, from how to use tablets to basic literacy concepts and ultimately to fluency.
Each primary school-aged child learns independently on a tablet - used by an average of 5 students per day for 30-60 mins each. Tablets work without internet connectivity and are solar-powered. Adaptive software includes a culturally appropriate literacy/numeracy curriculum in the local language of instruction, created by software partner onebillion Tablet sessions align with the national curriculum and supplement teacher-led instruction with children learning at their own direction and pace.
Nine randomised controlled studies have shown dramatic learning gains across different countries, languages, and contexts, with at least 50% more children meeting reading benchmarks and 70% of children reaching expected maths levels after just 13 months.
As an ecosystem co-ordinator, Imagine Worldwide pulls together all the inputs required to make such programmes work — sourcing tablets and software, solar systems to charge tablets, secure storage to keep equipment safe in schools, community engagements to get the buy-in of parents, teacher training to facilitate tablet-learning sessions (for extremely large classes), high-quality monitoring, evaluation and research to ensure fidelity of implementation and drive continuous improvement, building repairs and maintenance capacity in-country, government engagements at the local, district and national level for system-wide adoption.
Many development interventions are designed to run parallel to the primary government educational systems, whereas Imagine Worldwide works in partnership with the government from inception to strengthen government systems and scale the programmes nationally. Its government partners are committed to operating and financing the programmes at scale, at a recurring maintenance cost (after the initial capex of launching each school) of $3 per child per year. Through its local NGOs, local leaders and teams work hand-in-hand with Ministries of Education to drive implementation and embed the programme into existing government structures for long-term sustainability.
About Brisk from Brisk Teaching
Brisk Teaching is an AI-powered extension that helps teachers and school leaders save time, personalise learning, and streamline instructional and administrative workflows.

Brisk allows educators to generate differentiated lesson plans, provide instant and aligned feedback on student work, translate and level texts, and create engaging student-facing AI activities, directly in the tools they're already using.

Through Brisk Boost, teachers can design interactive AI-powered student assignments and monitor engagement in real-time.

With over 30 features designed with and for educators, Brisk is a powerful, educator-first tool that transforms teaching by removing tedious tasks and unlocking time for what matters most – meaningful instruction, student connection, and learning outcomes.

About Matific Maths Game from Matific

Matific is a multi-award-winning, digital mathematics platform for learners from Foundation to Year 9. It combines proven pedagogy with engaging game-based content, offering thousands of interactive activities that align with over 400 national and local curricula across over 70 countries. These activities, known as episodes, are designed to strengthen conceptual understanding and improve mathematical fluency.

Matific supports remote, hybrid, and in-class learning. It features intuitive teacher and parent dashboards and real-time insights that allow educators to personalise learning and monitor progress at scale, also enabling parents to take an active role in their child’s learning journey.

It is used by millions of learners and trusted by educators across both public and private sectors. Whether reinforcing classroom instruction or addressing learning gaps. Matific offers continuity between school and home study, encouraging collaboration between teachers and families in a way that is proven to support learning outcomes.

ABOUT T4 EDUCATION:

We believe every child, everywhere, deserves a good education. We are building the world's largest community of teachers and schools to achieve this. Together. Our digital media platform provides opportunities for educators to network, collaborate, share good practices, and support each other's efforts to improve learning and school culture. We work to amplify teachers’ voices because the world we want to see will only be built by listening to those at the heart of education.

For more information, please contact Salman Shaheen: ...

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