HON'BLE RONIT TIROSH

She shared her personal story and journey to success by using technology as a means. She started in the year 1994, and was the principal of the biggest high school in Tel Aviv city in Israel, with 250 teachers, and 2,500 students from all socio-economic levels. The students lacked ambition, their scores were low, and even the expectations of the teachers were quite low, compared to other schools in their district in Tel Aviv. Her school was in the South of the city and wascompared to schools in the North that had higher prestige.
She then felt then that she must create a gravitational pull in order to bring new students from the North to the South to maintain better students in the schools. So she decided to focus on Information Technology. With some national funds they bought 500 computers, distributed within 17 labs. Then they had to focus on training for the teachers and with this the self-image and the self confidence of the teachers who were mostly women also got raised. They also gained the admiration from the students, parents and also from the community. The vision of the school was to be a role model for other schools, and it went exactly as that. The students use the computers for scholastic, intelligent and meta- cognitive skills like planning like strategic planning, solving problems and reflection and other kind of skills. Soon she came to be regarded as a bold visionary, educator and became the principal of the Education system for the whole city from Kindergarten till University.
After a few years, she was promoted to be Director-General of the Ministry of Education.In this position she created and encouraged the use of technology especially by girls. Today she is in politics and is the Chair of Technology and Science Committee in the Parliament of Israel.

Sound Bites

• The motto of our school was – the one who dares succeeds. – nothing can withstand determination and only if you dare, you will succeed.