iStore Education Excellence in Education Awards 2025 are back, and this year they raise bigger questions about how technology can genuinely reshape South African classrooms.
On the surface, the awards are a celebration. They honour teachers and learners who are finding creative ways to use Apple technology to reimagine education — whether through AI, coding in Swift, digital storytelling or the now-familiar iPad and Mac in lesson plans. The official announcement, available via iStore Education, lays out the categories clearly: Creative Excellence, Curriculum Excellence and Tech Excellence, each judged by international panels.
But beneath the glossy layer of recognition lies the more pressing question: what happens once the applause dies down. Awards are a snapshot, not a strategy. South African schools, particularly those outside the urban centres, are still wrestling with uneven access to devices, connectivity and ongoing training. Celebrating innovation is vital, but sustaining it is harder.
Michelle Lissoos, Director at iStore Education, acknowledges this tension in the release: “Technology alone doesn’t transform education — it’s the people behind it who do.” It’s a fair point, but it also highlights the gap between high-profile initiatives and the everyday realities in classrooms where one broken iPad can derail a whole programme.
The promise of the awards lies in what happens next. Winners gain visibility, credibility and — if leveraged properly — a platform to build partnerships. We’ve already seen how ecosystems matter. When AWS launched its Skills Centre in Cape Town, it quickly became a model for how consistent support and collaboration can turn an idea into a pipeline of talent. That kind of long-term scaffolding is what will decide whether the Excellence in Education Awards move from being a marketing exercise to a genuine driver of systemic change.
For now, the structure of the competition is solid. Submissions span grade groups from Foundation Phase to Senior Phase, with clear guidelines for entries, including multimedia formats and app usage. First-place winners will walk away with iPads for teachers and students, which is hardly insignificant in a resource-strapped education landscape.
Still, visibility without follow-through risks becoming another moment of fleeting inspiration. If iStore Education is serious about this mission — and its track record suggests it may be — then the awards must serve as more than recognition. They need to become a launchpad for scaling the ideas that could redefine learning in South Africa.