Protection of Education Pathways

The education system in Uruguay faces challenges in achieving continuous, complete, and successful paths for young people. Despite having universal coverage in elementary school, a significant percentage of students repeat the first grades (13.4% in 1st and 6.9% in 2nd grade). These high repetition rates generate lagging: by 6th grade, 29% of students are over-aged..

Problems in primary education affect secondary education (SE) in three aspects: (i) integration, retention, and graduation of young people in the system; (ii) quality in terms of learning and skills development; and (iii) equity. Regarding the first challenge, even when SE is compulsory, attendance decreases from entry to this level. In 2013, the net enrollment rate (NER) in basic secondary education (BSE) was 76.2%. In addition to the system's difficulty in incorporating young people, 25% of Uruguayan students in SBE have two or more years of educational lagging.

Accordingly, the SBE graduation rate is only 57%. All SBE indicators place Uruguay in an unfavorable position compared to countries such as Chile (88%) and Ecuador (73%). The situation is even more concerning in higher secondary education (HSE), where the system faces difficulties in retaining young people: NER is only 48%, and the graduation rate is 38%, while Ecuador reports 80% and 58%, respectively.

Problem to be solved

Decrease the number of students who drop out of high school.

Populations affected by the problem>

Young people from 12 to 19 years old.

The current response to this problem, considering the related institutions

ANEP recently created Sistema de Protección de las Trayectorias Educativas (System for the Protection of Educational Pathways, SPTE). This system incorporates two instances (i) ANEP's Decentralized Commissions (DC), with the power to promote agreements and develop actions to address local educational problems with a comprehensive vision capable of articulating and complementing the actions of each council; and (ii) Departmental Coordinating Units for Educational Integration (UCDIEs), contributing to the generation of an educational integration policy with a territorial perspective. Each UCDIE incorporated into the DCs has a Coordinator supported by a multidisciplinary technical team that combines teachers and socio-educational specialists.

ANEP also developed new IT tools to produce information to reinforce the follow-up of each cohort. It allows the monitoring of students at the local level enabling the digital enrollment of students in the transition between primary and secondary education and the monitoring of students at the beginning of basic secondary education. This module engages families and delivers the information while promoting co-responsibility among the different stakeholders to protect the educational pathways.

Proposal to solve the problem using AI

Since the risk of educational disengagement has multiple causes and each student faces particularities, interventions must be comprehensive. The proposed solution generates a predictive model for school dropouts in secondary education based on information about students and the conditions of the educational offer. This solution provides information to the system stakeholders and families to generate concrete actions at the territorial and school level and protect the students' education trajectories.

What security considerations, national laws, or standards should be considered to use each source of information?

Law 18.331 on the Protection of Personal Data and Habeas Data, as amended.

Progress/results to May 2022

Development and validation of predictive models.

Goals for 2022-II

Model transferred to the new ANEP team, and pilot institutions identified. However, the model has not been deployed.

The work plan completion is expected by late 2022 to overcome implementation challenges and design public policy responses based on incorporating the predictive early warning model into ANEP's decision-making processes.

Main implementation challenges

Change in ANEP's technical teams requiring support for the deployment of the model.

Main AI challenges identified

Pilot cases have not been verified to date, allowing the identification of AI challenges.