Artificial Intelligence for Early School Leaving

The AI4ESL project was developed in response to the urgent need to address learning disadvantage and early school leaving (ESL) among students aged 11–15 from underrepresented backgrounds, including Roma communities, migrant learners, and students from rural or socio-economically disadvantaged areas. These learners often struggle with low proficiency in basic skills, particularly in Literacy, Media Literacy, and Numeracy, and lack access to personalised and adaptive digital learning environments. Educators also face challenges in identifying and addressing these learners’ specific needs due to limited digital tools and support systems. At the same time, the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in education remained largely untapped in inclusive learning contexts. The partnership recognised the opportunity to harness AI to create a scalable, evidence-based solution tailored to disadvantaged students. AI4ESL was conceived to address these needs while directly contributing to EU priorities on digital transformation, inclusion, and equity in education, as outlined in the Digital Education Action Plan. This initiative also responded to national strategies across partner countries.

The AI4ESL project was established to tackle early school leaving (ESL), address learning disadvantage, and improve basic skills among students from underrepresented groups by creating an AI-powered personalised learning platform. The project set out to achieve five core objectives. First, it aimed to understand the needs of students and educators through surveys and a comprehensive literature review, identifying gaps in digital education and inclusion. Second, it focused on designing an adaptive learning app to offer real-time personalised pathways in Literacy (including Media Literacy) and Numeracy. Third, the project sought to populate the platform with high-quality, constructively aligned content and pilot it with a large and diverse learner group. Fourth, it aimed to evaluate impact and satisfaction through feedback from students and educators. Finally, a recommendations document was produced to guide future applications of AI in inclusive education. The project also pursued wider aims: empowering educators with digital pedagogies, generating open educational resources, and supporting systemic change across Europe through strategic dissemination and sustainable, evidence-based digital innovation.

The project followed 3 phases: needs analysis, platform development and piloting, and evaluation. Activities included surveys, transnational meetings, joint staff training, piloting waves, writing recommendations, multiplier events, and dissemination.

The project produced a literature review, needs analysis, an AI-powered learning app, constructively aligned Literacy and Numeracy content, a comprehensive evaluation report, and a recommendations document; ensuring equity, innovation, access and impact.