In a move to transform education in Brazil, Arco Educação has partnered with OpenAI to create innovative tools that allow teachers to focus more on student learning. This initiative comes as a response to the challenges faced by Brazilian educators, who spend an average of one-third of their time on administrative tasks—40% more than the global average, according to a 2018 OECD report.
Ari de Sá Cavalcante, CEO of Arco Educação, emphasised the company's commitment to educators: "Arco's products were built by teachers, for teachers. Our AI strategy aims to free up educators' time, enabling them to focus more on each student's unique learning journey."
The cornerstone of Arco's AI initiative is the Teacher Assistant, a tool designed to streamline lesson planning, particularly for classrooms with diverse learning needs. With over 1.7 million students enrolled in special needs programs in Brazil, this tool has the potential to significantly impact inclusive education.
João Cunha, General Manager of Core Learning Systems Product and Technology at Arco, highlighted the collaborative approach to developing these tools: "Our AI product agenda was shaped by an inspiring co-creation process involving the collaboration of hundreds of educators. By placing teachers at the heart of our product development, we ensure that we meet the real demands of daily school life."
Arco's decision to partner with OpenAI was based on rigorous testing and evaluation. The company's data science team found that GPT-4, OpenAI's advanced language model, achieved a 90% accuracy rate in creating and assessing pedagogical content in Portuguese, outperforming the next-best model by a significant margin. Additionally, GPT-4 received a 70% approval rate from Arco's pedagogical team when evaluating generated questions, compared to a 56% approval rate for the second-place model.
The Teacher Assistant helps educators create general lesson plans and tailor them to individual students' needs, particularly those with learning disabilities. By describing a student's inclusion needs to the Assistant, teachers can quickly generate personalised lesson plans. Fernando, a high school teacher using the tool, reported, "The Teacher Assistant allowed me to optimise my time, saving me hours that I used to spend on tasks such as creating lesson plans and designing classroom activities aligned with the course curriculum."
Mariana Penido, Product Director at Arco, underlined the importance of personalised learning: "We believe that every child has their own spark and learns best in a way that reflects their individuality. AI-powered tools in our educational platforms are fundamental to unlocking personalised educational experiences that not only engage students but also equip teachers with the insights and resources to support each student's unique journey."
Arco Educação is currently piloting the Teacher Assistant in 50 schools, with plans to expand to 600 schools by the end of the year, reaching approximately 70,000 students. The company aims to roll out these solutions to their entire customer base of over 3 million students throughout 2025, following a phased approach that includes continuous testing and refinement.