A digital platform to improve high school students’educational decision-making in Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic, poverty significantly shapes young people’s access to and success in higher education. As of 2023, 23.1% of the population lived in poverty, with women disproportionately affected at 27.4% (ONE, 2023). These economic constraints influence educational trajectories from an early age, particularly in rural areas where over half of secondary school students come from low-income households, compared to just 24.3% in urban settings. Rural students also face connectivity challenges: only 32.7% of rural households have internet access (ENHOGAR, 2022).

These disparities contribute to major gaps in educational attainment. Graduation rates remain low, with only 29.8% of high school students graduating. While 55.2% of high school graduates enrolled in university in 2022, only 18% completed their degrees (MINERD, 2022), highlighting significant challenges in the system, in selecting the right educational path and successfully completing it.

Gender disparities further complicate the situation: although women make up 65.7% of university students, they remain underrepresented in higher-paying fields such as ICT, engineering, and agriculture, often channeled instead into lower-paid sectors. Women tend to better perform academically but with the weight of traditional gender role push them into careers in humanities, education and health.

Many students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, lack access to accurate and personalized information, often underestimating the returns to education or overestimating failure risks in higher education. The education system, characterized by decentralization, faces difficulties in designing and scaling effective informational interventions, and has limited institutional capacity for evaluating the impact of policies and programs.

Drawing on a decade of collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MINERD), ConsiliumBots proposes to transform the Pruebas Nacionales platform, a government-owned website used annually by over 100,000 high school graduates to check their exam results, into a national hub for personalized guidance and evidence generation.

The project deployment will be twofold. First, it will deploy AI-powered informational interventions aimed at students as they consult their results, using personalized pop-ups, chatbots, and tailored messages to guide them through their educational choices, available financial aid, and career paths. Second, it will build institutional capacity within MINERD to design, test, and scale data-informed policies through a hands-on training program focused on research design, user-centered platform management, data analysis, and impact evaluation.

FID’s funding will directly support the technical development of new features for the Pruebas Nacionales platform. Additionally, a learn-by-doing training program will support MINERD staff in adopting evidence-based policymaking practices.

The project also includes a cost-effectiveness analysis, targeting a cost of €0.1 per student. It builds on successful pilots, notably the “Tienes Talento” and “Learning the Value of Education” programs, which used personalized information campaigns to boost student motivation and university enrollment. Earlier versions of the Pruebas Nacionales platform have shown strong engagement, particularly among high-performing students, underscoring the platform’s potential as a national driver for more informed educational decision-making.

This phase will test the technical and institutional feasibility of the solution. The FID funding will contribute to:

• An upgraded Pruebas Nacionales platform providing personalized educational guidance to over 100,000 students annually.
• Increased student awareness of academic and professional opportunities, particularly among rural and low-income populations.
• A measurable shift in students’ post-secondary education decisions aligned with their academic potential and career preferences.
• Strengthened institutional capacity within MINERD to independently design and evaluate education interventions.
• A governance system enabling MINERD to prioritize and manage future research through the platform.
• Improved access to higher education through direct platform links to enrollment services.
• A full cost-effectiveness assessment to inform future scale-up.

By transforming an existing government platform into a tool for personalized student engagement and institutional learning, the project aims to foster a more inclusive, informed, and data-driven education system in the Dominican Republic.