Artificial intelligence to improve academic success: The Ministry of Education is making an “unprecedented” change

Quebec is investing in “unprecedented” digital transformation aimed at improving academic success through artificial intelligence, which makes it possible to identify particularly at-risk students and effectively interact with them.

Also read: One school attempted to break the Guinness record

The adventure has been going on for about two years now at the Center de Services Scholaire in Cœur-des-Vallées, Touis.

At this service center, we want to work upstream without having to wait a few days for the student to be absent from school to sound the alarm.

A tool developed in collaboration with a private company: it is used to estimate which teenagers are most likely to drop out. In addition to considering school outcomes, we also consider a number of other factors (absenteeism, behavioral issues, etc.).

Since the beginning of the year, school principals have received monthly lists of students that need to be closely monitored. School teams can change their interventions and services according to this monthly list.

“It’s a truly incredible tool that allows us to identify students in the gray area and students who have previously fallen into a fracture,” said Daniel Bellemer, director general of the school’s service center.

The school team does not have to analyze the data with the means at hand, so there is more time to allocate to its students, he adds.

Digital Intelligence Project

The initiative is part of the “Digital Intelligence Project” announced by the Legal government on Monday.

Education Minister Jean-Franకోois indicated that the Center de Services Schర్uler at Cœur-des-Vallées, as well as the Val-des-Cerfs in Montérégie, “showed the way” by acting as “pioneers” in this regard. Roberz. “We are inspired by what they do to make it better,” he added.

Portrait in real time

In addition to making this type of tool available across the school network, the Ministry of Education relies on the use of “real-time” data to enable better management of the education network.

Until recently, data was collected manually on the school network, indicating a real “battle on the heights”. Minister Roberz said the approach to doing these things, which slowed down the school network during the epidemic, was “no longer acceptable” in 2022.

The use of digital intelligence produces “dashboards” to better guide the decisions of the government and the school network with the aim of improving the services provided to students, established in parallel with the changes made in the Ministry. Health from the beginning of the epidemic.

From the beginning of the 2022 academic year, the first comprehensive data on student absenteeism and success, school staffing needs and work progress in schools will be available. Other real-time data will be added later.

This is “the first major artificial intelligence project of the Quebec government,” he said, referring to Eric Kieran, the minister responsible for the strategy for the integration of artificial intelligence in public administration, emphasizing its “nervous” aspect.

Quebec is investing $ 10.6 million in the project over two years. It works with accredited partners such as the Quebec Institute of Artificial Intelligence (MILA) and the Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO).

See also