Microsoft's AI used to identify potential school drop-outs

The Andra Pradesh government is using Microsoft Azure Machine Learning to identify students at risk of dropping out in the coming school year.

Azure Machine Learning is a cloud predictive analytics service that makes it possible to quickly create and deploy predictive models as analytics solutions. It not only provides tools to model predictive analytics, but also provides a fully managed service you can use to deploy your predictive models as ready-to-consume web services.

Based on demographics such as gender, socio-economic demographics, academic performance, school infrastructure and teacher skills, the application has identified 19,500 Visakhapatnam district students at high risk.  These students will be offered a variety of programs and counselling sessions to intervene and prevent the adverse predicted outcome.

“The drive is also aimed at increasing enrolments at government schools by raising awareness about the advantages of public schools. We will use the predictive data to track, counsel and address the issues of the students, who are likely to drop out next academic year,” said the officials.

Interestingly Microsoft’s AI identified high predictors for students dropping out being features such as insufficient furniture and inadequate toilet infrastructure, suggesting the availability and appropriate use of resources may be the biggest determinate of student success.

Visakhapatnam district education officials revealed that an enrolment drive will be conducted from April 23 to 30 to not only admit new students into schools but also encourage dropouts to join schools again.

Microsoft designed Azure Machine Learning to eliminate the heavy lifting involved in building and deploying machine learning technology and make it accessible to everybody.  Read more about the technology here.

Via TimeOfIndia