Gear Education partners with illumine towards transforming preschool management

As early childhood education becomes an increasingly urgent priority for communities and policymakers, new alliances are emerging to ensure care, safety, and learning are elevated through innovation.

In Cyprus, where recent events have sparked national reflection on the state of preschool, Gear Education and illumine have partnered to lead a new chapter — one where smart, AI-powered systems bring peace of mind and proactive oversight to families and centres alike.

This partnership arrives at a pivotal moment, as communities across Cyprus begin rethinking how technology can better support early education and the professionals behind it. A recent incident involving the tragic loss of a nine-month-old baby has sparked important conversations about how nurseries and families can stay more connected and informed- in real-time, with visibility and accountability.

Christina Shailas, Founder CEO of Gear Education, shared, “The safety of our children is paramount. We can't always be with them, but we can put systems in place to better protect them. Smart technology, such as illumine, represents a proactive step in providing educators and parents with crucial support for their safety. As a new mother myself, I find comfort in knowing that we are leveraging innovative tools to create a safer environment for our children, especially when they are outside our direct care. Introducing illumine to our region is about taking that proactive stance.”

“The childcare sector is one of the last to truly benefit from intelligent systems. We started illumine because we saw the real-life gaps in how early childhood care was being managed,” said Navneet Rastogi, CEO of illumine. “Our partnership with Gear Education allows us to work closely with local teams and respond to the needs of centres in Cyprus and Greece with care and intent. It will add to our vision of co-creating a new infrastructure of accountability, transparency, and quality in early years education.”

Gear Education, Cyprus’s leading educational technology service provider, saw an opportunity to support this transformation with systems that do more than automate — they anticipate, alert, and inform. Together, the two organisations are bringing intelligent, compassionate preschool technology to centres across Greece and Cyprus. These tools include digital attendance tracking, real-time parent notifications, daily updates, and automated reminders, all working quietly in the background to bring peace of mind and better oversight.

In September 2024, illumine rolled out its first Cyprus implementation across RISE Preschools — setting a new benchmark for safe, transparent, and efficient early years operations on the island. With features such as real-time parent updates, attendance-based alerts, daily activity logs, and staff coordination tools, the platform is helping educators focus more on care, and less on paperwork.

Their partnership with Gear Education marks the beginning of illumine’s deeper investment in Europe’s early childhood ecosystem. It brings together Gear Education’s expertise as an edtech implementation partner and illumine’s global presence across 50+ countries. It’s a strategic partnership built not just on software, but on a shared mission to bring thoughtful digital transformation to early childhood education in Greece, Cyprus, and beyond.

At the heart of this transformation is illumine’s intuitive all-in-one app, which allows preschool centres to manage everything from billing and lesson planning to parent communication and staffing on a single platform. One of its most impactful features is its ability to deliver live parent updates — sharing photos, videos, and activity logs in real-time, so families feel more involved and reassured throughout the day.

As conversations around compliance, child safety, and educator well-being grow, Gear Education and illumine are committed to building long-term systems that not only prevent incidents — but promote excellence.

From digitising diaper logs to creating AI-generated learning reports, the future of preschool is not just digital — it's deeply human, and powerfully connected.

About illumine: illumine is an AI-powered all-in-one preschool management platform, trusted by over 3,000 centres across 50 countries. With artificial intelligence at its core, the platform streamlines operations for preschools, nurseries, and daycare centres, offering tools for communication, curriculum tracking, billing, staffing, and compliance. Designed to improve efficiency, transparency, and quality, illumine is redefining preschool management for the modern world. Learn more at illumine.app

About Gear Education: Gear Education is a Cyprus-based education technology firm offering consulting, technology solutions, technical services, and training. As a trusted implementation partner, Gear Education works with educational institutions to deploy secure, scalable digital learning environments, from infrastructure and device management to hands-on training and long-term support. Amongst noteworthy partnerships with industry leaders, Gear Education is the island's first Google for Education partner and home to the first Apple Professional Learning Specialist. For more information, please visit www.geareducation.com