A projected 80 percent of sixth graders in Latin America lack basic reading comprehension proficiency, which threatens to decrease their lifetime earnings.1
As we work to increase economic inclusion in our communities around the world, our colleagues in Latin America are partnering with local organizations to improve educational outcomes through technology, training, and enhanced access.
Here are some of the ways we’re improving students’ financial futures through better education.
Using AI to build skills and equip teachers
In addition to reading, math skills are foundational to long-term success—yet many students in Latin America are falling behind.2 To change this trajectory, we helped incubate an effective, affordable, and scalable method for teaching math to kids.
Partnering with Colegio Los Nogales, a school in Bogotá, Colombia, we helped create an online math program called Mentu that was motivational and interesting to kids and would improve math skills at the same time.
“It’s like a video game,” explains Jose Espinosa, who was part of the McKinsey team before transitioning to CEO of Mentu. “Every mission is highly relevant, and students go through the learning journey based on best practices, while teachers get data on how their students are progressing.”
The initial version of Mentu helped more than 30,000 students in 100 schools throughout Colombia and the Dominican Republic.
In addition to helping students, the rise of AI has created an opportunity to better support teachers. Mentu’s team developed Shaia, an AI-enabled teacher’s assistant that instantly creates customized lesson plans while providing detailed feedback to teachers to improve students’ educational outcomes.
So far, 200,000 students in ten Latin American countries are benefitting from Shaia, including Enseña Perú. Mentu is now a self-standing edtech, with an expansive portfolio of AI solutions for teachers under development that holds the promise of materially improving classroom instruction and learning at scale.
Transforming education in Peru
When research revealed that only 30 percent of fourth graders and 20 percent of eighth graders in Peru can comprehend what they read, our colleagues were eager to help.3
We partnered with Enseña Perú (Teach for Peru) to help answer the question: What does it take to transform education from the ground up?
We began by conducting interviews with educators and experts across the country to identify obstacles and best practices. Together with Enseña Perú, we used these insights to design a new model to help local education administrators. We then embedded a team on the ground in the Ascope Province to test and refine this model in close partnership with local principals, teachers, and leaders so it could be scaled nationally.
At the same time, we developed a system to train and coach teachers while equipping district leaders with the skills needed to operate their schools more efficiently. We helped create an agile “test and learn” environment to help them be more nimble and adjust to changes more quickly.
Leveraging McKinsey.org’s Ability to Execute (A2E) Essentials for Nonprofits, we introduced common language and best practices that Enseña Perú teams and local educational leaders could use to effectively collaborate.
We were also able to test and integrate Mentu and its AI capabilities to give teachers additional tools needed to help students reach their full potential.
The entirety of the project represented a fundamental shift for Enseña Perú, which has been implementing and utilizing the new model, systems, and technologies as a pilot program in Ascope over the past nine months.
“[McKinsey] helped us in all areas of the organization—the culture, the way we budget, the way we structure, new ways of using technology, and how we define success yearly and over the long term,” says Franco Mosso Cobián, who recently handed over the CEO reigns at Enseña Perú.
“We highly appreciate the support of McKinsey in enhancing our organizational ability to explore innovative yet evidence-based alternatives,” says Angela Bravo Chacón, current CEO at Enseña Perú. “It allowed us to scale up our impact and close learning gaps in our country.”
Opening the door to high-quality education in Ecuador
Improving education is not only about access. It’s also about learning outcomes, with fewer than one percent of schools in Ecuador achieving an “excellent” ranking in standardized tests.4 We partnered with Ecuadorian nonprofit Fundación CRISFE and set an ambitious goal: to ensure that low-income, high-need children have access to affordable, high-quality education.
Together, we developed a plan to create a private school network that would offer consistent, first-rate curricula while providing services like breakfast and lunch and counseling so every child could focus on learning.
The plan included centralizing the school administration to reduce admission costs and achieve financial sustainability, enabling them to invest in excellent teachers, training, and coaching.
Two schools have already been acquired, just in time for the start of the school year. CRISFE aspires to build up a network of 60 to 70 schools over the next ten years, becoming one of the largest and most impactful school networks in the region.
1. “Two Years After: Saving a Generation,” UNICEF and World Bank, 2022
2. ibid
3. National Assessment of Learning Achievements 2023, Ministry of Education of Peru
4. 2023 “SER Estudiante” test results over 800, Ecuadorian National Institute of Educational Evaluation (INEVAL)