Blog
Welcome to our blog. Here you will find the latest news and updates from Mentu Labs.
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The learning crisis is not solved with technological improvisation
80% of 10-year-olds in Latin America cannot comprehend a simple text. The urgency is for quality, not just coverage. We explore how AI can be part of the real solution. -
The learning crisis is not solved with technological improvisation
80% of 10-year-olds in Latin America cannot understand a simple text. This statistic, documented by the World Bank and the OECD, has been cited in educational policy forums for over a decade. And yet, the problem persists. Why? Because we have faced it with solutions that prioritize speed over depth,... -
AI and the teacher: Tool or substitute?
Every time a powerful new technology emerges, humans ask ourselves the same thing: will it replace us? With generative artificial intelligence, that question has become especially urgent in the educational sphere. But the question is poorly formulated. The real debate is not whether AI will replace teachers, but how we... -
The 5% problem: why technological innovation doesn't reach everyone
The history of educational innovation is, in large part, a history of unfulfilled promises for the majority. Every new technology—educational radio in the 60s, television in the 70s, computers in the 80s and 90s, tablets in the Obama era—has arrived with revolutionary predictions. And each time, the real benefit has... -
The 5% problem: why technological innovation doesn't reach everyone
Historically, technological innovation in education only reaches a minority. The real risk is that EdTech widens existing inequalities instead of closing them. -
Project Lucero: Lessons from an AI-powered educational reform
In 2024, the Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic partnered with Mentu Labs to design and implement an ecosystem of AI tools for teachers. Project Lucero, as we called it, became one of the most complex and revealing projects in our history. What we learned challenged many of our... -
Three levels of evidence: the Mentu Labs MEL standard
How to know if an EdTech tool really works? The obvious answer is: see if students learn more. But most technology projects in education measure things much easier—and much less relevant. At Mentu Labs, we developed a three-level MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning) standard that forces us to answer the... -
Co-creating with teachers: the Mentu Labs method
Most EdTech startups build their product, take it to schools, and wait for feedback. We do the opposite: we go to schools, listen for weeks or months, and only then do we start building. It’s not the fastest way. It’s the way that produces tools that are actually used. -
Data protection in educational settings: what you should know
When artificial intelligence enters the classroom, it also enters with an unprecedented capacity to collect, process, and analyze data about children and adolescents. That capacity can be a powerful tool for learning personalization. It can also be a violation of rights if it is not managed with the appropriate frameworks.... -
Low-tech, high impact: AI in rural areas of Peru
45% of rural schools in Latin America do not have access to reliable internet. For most EdTech solutions, that datum disqualifies those schools as a potential market. For Mentu Labs, it is the starting point. The project in Ascope, Peru, demonstrated that AI can impact even where connectivity is an... -
The RCT as the gold standard in EdTech: why we adopt it
In the field of medicine, no drug reaches the market without going through rigorous clinical trials. In EdTech, tools that affect millions of children are often adopted based on testimonials, uncontrolled case studies, and impressive demonstrations. Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are the antidote to that methodological fragility.