Yasmin Milagros Villaizan Vicuña

In this position, I perform two main functions. Firstly, I am in charge of managing and supervising data analysis projects, covering all phases, from conceptualization to implementation and presentation of the results. Secondly, I actively collaborate with the other Ministry of Education (MINEDU) offices in the design and development of methodologies for the collection, processing, and analysis of statistical data for the planning and implementation of public interventions. These functions, interrelated and complementary, constitute my essential contribution to the generation of valuable information for making informed decisions in MINEDU.

In 2020, in the midst of the challenging pandemic scenario, I played an active role as part of the technical team that was responsible for designing and budgeting a strategy to absorb private enrollment that sought to transfer to public schools due to households suffering a dramatic reduction in income. My specific task was to estimate the available vacancies in public schools. Using all available sources of information, I estimated a total supply of 531,519 vacancies, of which 437,987 were in expanded double-shift classrooms. At that time, the qualification of these vacancies entailed a cost of S/. 273,553,964 (equivalent to 73,582,995 USD) for the year 2020 and S/. 523,355,105.42 (equivalent to 140,776,743 USD) for the year 2021. This data played a crucial role in making short- and long-term strategic decisions. As part of the short-term actions, during that same year, I contributed to the development of a web platform designed to validate vacancy estimates and collect parents' transfer intentions, with the aim of obtaining more precise information in order to specify each transfer from private school to public school.

Between the years 2021 and 2022, I assumed a prominent role in the 2022-2024 Multiannual Budget Programming process, leading the analysis of the financial situation and the budget request for two priority strategic interventions of the MINEDU. One of them was the "Provision of educational resources", for which I obtained approval for around 33 million dollars. Although the second intervention, the "Strategy to close the digital gap and connectivity", did not achieve budget approval, approval of the "National Plan to Close the Digital Gap" was achieved through Ministerial Resolution No. 438-2022-MINEDU thus laying the foundations for budget approval in subsequent years.

I led the review of the expenditure of the intervention called "Provision of educational materials" covering the entire process from production to distribution to each school in the country. This analysis proved to be truly challenging due to the limited quality, lack of integration and consistency of the information available. The inability to verify the reception of educational materials by students, which represents the main objective of this intervention, led us to direct our recommendations towards technological solutions that allow Minedu to have the traceability of educational materials from their manufacture to its delivery to students.

I played an essential role in providing technical support for the characterization and quantification of management and administrative personnel in public schools nationwide. This valuable information not only served as a basis for training strategies but was also instrumental in the conception and development of targeted initiatives to improve management in schools. I highlight my significant contribution to the planning of a diploma course aimed at school principals who managed to pass the national evaluation for promotion up the teaching ladder.

As a member of the data analysis team in this Office, I played a crucial role in analyzing the results of the first phase of the intervention called "Performance Commitments." The objective was to evaluate the fulfillment of goals and, subsequently, make strategic adjustments. It should be noted that this intervention constitutes an incentive tool that provides additional resources to regional education managers based on the fulfillment of specific educational goals.

Additionally, I actively participated in the creation of indicators for the Integrated System of the Education Sector. This work culminated in the implementation of a Business Intelligence platform, which facilitates the efficient consultation of relevant data for decision making.

At the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion (MIDIS) I was part of the technical team that was in charge of updating the socioeconomic classification algorithm that is currently used to identify poor households that will be beneficiaries of the main social programs in Peru such as the Conditional Transfer Program called “JUNTOS” and the Solidarity Assistance called “Pensión 65” that provides an economic subsidy to adults over 65 years of age. This experience was enriching and was the starting point to guide my career towards the use of data for decision making.

I designed and developed an innovative methodology to calculate the annual allocation of educational materials such as texts, notebooks, educational games and pencils by the MINEDU. The essence of the methodology lies in the creation of a sophisticated algorithm that projects school enrollment and, based on the application of specific criteria for the allocation of each educational material, identifies the type and quantity that corresponds to each school. Highlighting my meticulous attention to planning, I included an additional strategic reserve that I called "safety stock" for replacement or redistribution in case of loss or shortage due to estimation error, thus ensuring efficient and adaptable management. The implementation of this methodology required coordination with six MINEDU offices, who continue to apply it to this day. This continuity in its use underlines the reliability and effectiveness sustained over time.