Educate Bulgarian Children with Khan Academy

Dear friends, we are thrilled to share some exciting news – our dream of helping more children improve their math skills is becoming a reality! Over the next three years, the UniCredit Foundation will support our "Better at Math with Khan Academy" program, bringing it to 50 more schools across Bulgaria.

What better way to celebrate our 10-year anniversary than by expanding our impact and reaching even more students?

Thank you for being part of this incredible journey!

Better at Math with Khan Academy: Autumn results

With the support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation, we expanded our “Better at Math with Khan Academy” program from 2 to 10 more schools from Burgas, Stara Zagora, Sofia, Panagyurishte, Aytos, and Burgas. In the autumn of 2024 we trained a total of 245 math and primary teachers on how to successfully implement Khan Academy into their math education.

Following the trainings, weekly mentoring sessions began in each school to ensure regular program implementation. Currently, over 3300 students are participating in the program.

Meanwhile, as part of our first three-year program with UniCredit Foundation, we continue our monthly mentoring support for a second school year in our two pilot schools in Sofia. 

Devices Donation Campaign

Many of the schools we are working with lacked the necessary resources. To address this, we launched a campaign to collect devices for 7 of the 10 new schools. Within 1-2 months, we successfully provided three sets of 25 devices to three schools, with generous contributions from companies such as Ubisoft, UniCredit Bulbank, Astea Solutions, Schwartz IT, and Pwrteams. This immediate support enabled hundreds of students to access high-quality learning tools more regularly. Our efforts will continue in the coming year to ensure that every student has the opportunity to benefit from Khan Academy as much as possible.

Advocacy efforts for our programs

• After joining BESCO in the spring, as of December 2024, we are also a member of the Bulgarian EdTech Cluster, hoping to continue advocating for smarter and more effective digitalization through these networks.
• For the purposes of the "Better at Math with Khan Academy" program, we established official partnerships with the Municipality of Burgas, the Municipality of Blagoevgrad, and the Regional Education Office in Burgas. 
• Since the program launched, we have continued seeking new partnerships and are currently in negotiations with the Municipality of Varna and the Municipality of Kyustendil, with meetings planned with several more municipalities.
• Our team participated in the EdTech Innovators Forum, joining discussions with the deputy minister of education and leading education and technology experts. We highlighted Khan Academy’s role in bridging gaps in educational access and quality, emphasizing its transformative potential.

Success Stories from Our Teachers

At Hristo Botev Primary School in the Pobeda district of Burgas, Mrs. Petrova has witnessed remarkable progress in her sixth-graders’ motivation to study math and participate actively in class. Some students enjoy the Khan Academy math lessons so much that they even join sessions with other classes!

Several teachers in the program initially expressed skepticism, but they soon observed significant improvement among their students. For example, Mrs. Dukova from 11th Primary School in Blagoevgrad reports that her sixth-graders are now more engaged, and their academic performance has improved.

Similarly, Mrs. Dimitrova from Aytos saw positive results after just one month of using Khan Academy for math revision. Some of her sixth-graders even raised their grades from a C to an A!

There are inspiring stories from younger students as well. Mrs. Keremedchieva from 97th Secondary School in Sofia has seen her third-graders make impressive progress with Khan Academy. The students love tracking their progress and consistently strive for 100% on exercises.

A particularly touching story comes from Blagoevgrad, where a second-grade girl, who had read 240 books in a year, struggled with math. After starting Khan Academy at school, her math skills improved significantly, and she now says she loves the subject!

Creating Local Math Content:

In spring 2024, we began developing our own math content – videos and exercises – to address gaps in Khan Academy for grades 5-7, aligned with the Bulgarian curriculum. So far, we have created 19 topics, each including a video and an exercise.

We are among the first international Khan Academy teams to produce local math content. Our videos and exercises can be adapted and used by other countries, broadening our impact.

A Year of Translation Achievements:

2024 was a highly productive year for us in revising and expanding math content, as well as creating new advisory articles and exercises for teachers and students on using Khan Academy and its latest features.

From September to December 2024 alone, we translated 435,500 words and proofread 427,800 words in math and educational resources. In total for 2024, we produced 7 new videos and translated or proofread 1.39 million words across exercises and articles for teachers and students.

Exciting Events:

• AIMS Human Capital 30th Anniversary – Maria Shishkova, one of our most dedicated Advisory Board members, invited us to celebrate the 30th anniversary of AIMS. A charity auction held during the event raised nearly 30,000 BGN from key companies, supporting our "Better at Math with Khan Academy" program.
• 2024 Annual Education Awards by the Cambridge Schools Association – At this prestigious event, we presented our math improvement program to 40 school directors and representatives from across Bulgaria. Attendees showed great interest in adopting Khan Academy’s tools to enhance teaching strategies.
• Game Dev Day 2 – Our chairman and teacher trainer, Ivan Gospodinov, was a featured speaker in the panel "Gamification in Education: Innovation or a Familiar Friend?" He demonstrated how Khan Academy uses gamification to engage students and improve learning, sparking lively discussions with over 70 educators, developers, and innovators.
• National Seminar on Mathematics Education – At the National Seminar hosted by the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the Bulgarian Academy of Science (IMI-BAS), we showcased how Khan Academy can support and improve math education across Bulgaria.
• Manager for a Day – As part of this initiative, three ambitious young women assumed leadership roles at Education Without Backpacks for a day. They gained valuable experience managing educational projects, strategizing campaigns, and understanding nonprofit operations.

Thank you for supporting us and contributing to our growing impact!

Links:

• Third-graders created a song about Khan Academy and Math!
• Students improve their Math grades with Khan Academy!
• 10 years of Education Without Backpacks & 10 milestones!

From the expansion of our successful Math program to new features in Khan Academy, we are committed to empower students and teachers for better results! Our recent initiatives showcase our dedication to innovative teaching methods, digital leadership, and creating an engaging and supportive learning environment. 

Better in Math with Khan Academy: Expanding the Program

This year we are expanding our program to improve students’ Math results by incorporating Khan Academy! The program is building upon our experience since last year working with two schools with very low Math results.

During the summer we carefully selected ten new schools from the regions Burgas, Blagoevgrad, Pazardzhik, Stara Zagora, and Sofia to participate in the program. Teachers in the selected schools are undergoing intensive training and will receive regular mentoring sessions throughout the next two school years. While working with those teachers, we are focusing on how to effectively use the resources of the world's largest free educational platform, Khan Academy, that can simplify the teaching process and enhance student motivation.

"Improving Math Results in 10 Bulgarian Schools with Khan Academy" program is supported by our main partner, the America for Bulgaria Foundation, as well as Cargill Bulgaria and the Municipality of Burgas. Additionally, we have established an official partnership with the Blagoevgrad Municipality and Burgas Regional Department of Education. Their teams will actively support the efforts of their schools and help disseminate information and best practices to other schools throughout both regions. 

Celebrating the End of the Previous School Year

In June 2024, we celebrated the successful end of the school year at 75th Primary School "Todor Kableshkov" and 71st Secondary School "Peyo Yavorov" in Sofia. Fifth graders and their favorite Math teachers gathered for an unforgettable dance challenge! It was a day filled with smiles and joy in the rhythm of the music and with many references between music, dance and Math. 

The students' reaction was extremely positive – laughter and enthusiasm spread all over the school. Teachers also had a lot of fun. At the end students received certificates for the time spent learning with Khan Academy during the past term.

These events marked the conclusion of the first year of the "More Successful in Math with Khan Academy in Middle School" project funded by UniCredit Foundation. 

Finale of the Digital School Leaders Program

At the end of June 2024, our 6-month mentoring program "Digital School Leaders" concluded successfully. The final day was highly inspiring for all 12 participants, featuring presentations of their projects and receiving peer feedback. It was during this final phase that the true partnership between leaders began – they created a community space for exchanging ideas, discussions, information and useful materials.

The "Digital School Leaders" program prepared the participants to create and manage innovative projects related to the digitalization of educational processes and the application of artificial intelligence, including in STEM education.

“Mrs, We’ll Remember You for This!"

Tsvetelina Stoyanova, a physics and chemistry teacher at 20th Primary School "Todor Minkov" in Sofia, transformed the learning process in her classroom with 7th graders with the help of "Education Without Backpacks" expert Mikhaylo Grishchenko. 

In just three months the students were able to:

• Interview ChatGPT in the role of scientist Rutherford.
• Create a space garden.
• Design a bunker and test it in a Minecraft simulation.
• Write three sci-fi novellas with the help of AI.

The final class of her interactive STEM lesson series took place in June 2024, when the excited students shared with their teacher: "Mrs, we’ll remember you for this!"

Exciting Events

Hello, Space! 

We are proud that our team was part of the biggest space event in Bulgaria, which took place on June 25 at Sofia Tech Park. The event brought together over 1,000 students interested in science and technology, as well as young scientists and researchers at Sofia Tech Park.

At the "Education Without Backpacks" and Khan Academy booth, young mathematicians solved problems using Khan Academy all day! Something even more exciting also happened – an epic duel between Dr. Solomon Passy and engineer Dr. Petko Dinev! The two brilliant minds led student teams in a Khan competition involving Roman numerals. In fact, all the children did an excellent job and left happy with small gifts from Khan Academy.

Unconference in Milan 

In July 2024, the "Education Without Backpacks" team participated in this year’s Unconference, organized by UniCredit Foundation. The two-day event took place in Milan, Italy, and was bringing together selected educational organizations that are part of the Call for Education 2023 UniCredit program.

During the event members of organizations from 12 countries had the opportunity to meet and exchange experiences. This year's theme was Conflict – social, cultural, educational, and in the family.

Rozalina Laskova, CEO of "Education Without Backpacks", led a discussion workshop on "Challenges in the Digitalization of School Education". During the workshop, various aspects of both potential and current conflicts in the digitalization of education were discussed.

Microsoft Teams Integration with Khan Academy: A New Era in Digital Learning

Microsoft Teams users can now seamlessly share Khan Academy content directly with their students in Teams! This is made possible through a new partnership between Microsoft and Khan Academy. Additionally, Microsoft has integrated more Khan Academy content into its Copilot, aiming to innovate in the field of artificial intelligence and improve the quality of education globally.

Khan Academy is also introducing a new feature across all exercises, tests and course challenges – the "Skip" button! This button allows students to pass over difficult questions while getting step-by-step guidance for solving specific problems.

Khan Academy Localization for the Period May 2024 – August 2024

Translation: 449,8K words in Mathematics and Resources

Proofreading: 449,2K words in Mathematics and Resources

Thank you for supporting us on this journey and helping us expand our impact!

Links:

• First training sessions with the new 10 schools!
• End of the School Year Celebrations Video
• Interactive STEM lesson series Vide