336,000 Peruvian Teens Just Vanished from the Classroom — The Data Behind Peru's Youth Education Gap

A child works in a crop field at a community in Huancayo, Junin Region, in the mountains in central Peru on November 14, 2023. The drought, caused by El Nino weather phenomenon -- which triggers higher global temperatures -- is severely affecting poor areas in the central Andean region. (Credit: Photo by Hugo CUROTTO / AFP) (Photo by HUGO CUROTTO/AFP via Getty Images)

Peru's newest household survey has produced a precise, uncomfortable count: 336,000 teenagers between 14 and 17 — nearly 15% of everyone that age in the country — are not enrolled in school at all. More than a third of them have already swapped classrooms for paid work, according to figures the Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática released this month.

The count landed days after Peru's newly published PISA 2025 scores confirmed a second, related problem: math and reading performance among Peruvian 15-year-olds slid back to where it stood roughly ten years ago. Two separate data releases, published within the same week, point toward one conclusion — the country is losing teenagers from classrooms and losing ground with the ones who stay.