Online coding and AI classes across the Arequipa region

INEI, Censos Nacionales 2025, Cuadro N° 1 of the demographic indicators: total population (counted and omitted) at 15 September 2025, on boundaries valid at 15 July 2026. The department line is INEI's own; the provinces are shown beside it, not added to make it. The "three in four" is our rounding of 1,382,600 out of 1,814,554.

Sources: the General Education Law, Ley 28044, for the length of each stage; MINEDU's table of normative ages, measured on 31 March; the CNEB plan of studies for secundaria hours. Checked in November 2026.

From INEI's Compendio Estadístico Perú 2026, first volume, tables 11.5, 11.6 and 11.13, based on the Encuesta Nacional de Hogares. INEI's decimal commas are shown as points.

import csv

titles = []
with open("proinnovate-arequipa.csv", newline="", encoding="utf-8") as projects:
    for row in csv.DictReader(projects):
        titles.append(row["Titulo"])

about_ai = [t for t in titles if "ia" in t.lower()]
print("Projects:", len(titles))
print("Titles that mention IA:", len(about_ai))
print("First one:", about_ai[0][:60])

Read the first match. It is about virtual tools and marketing strategies, and it was caught because "estrategias" contains the letters i and a side by side. The test "ia" in t.lower() asks whether those two letters appear anywhere, not whether the word IA appears. In Spanish that is very common: comercial, eficiencia, industria and experiencia all contain it.

Version 2 splits each title into words first, using a regular expression that keeps letters and digits together and drops spaces and punctuation. Then it checks for the whole word "ia", or for the phrase "inteligencia artificial" written out. It also counts which words fooled the first version.

import csv
import re

def words(text):
    return re.findall(r"\w+", text.lower())

titles = []
with open("proinnovate-arequipa.csv", newline="", encoding="utf-8") as projects:
    for row in csv.DictReader(projects):
        titles.append(row["Titulo"])

about_ai = []
for t in titles:
    if "ia" in words(t) or "inteligencia artificial" in " ".join(words(t)):
        about_ai.append(t)

print("Titles about AI:", len(about_ai))
for t in about_ai:
    print("-", t[:70])

fooled = {}
for t in titles:
    for w in words(t):
        if "ia" in w and w != "ia":
            fooled[w] = fooled.get(w, 0) + 1
print("Words that fooled version 1:", sorted(fooled, key=fooled.get, reverse=True)[:4])

Three projects out of 368 name AI in their titles. That does not mean only three use it; a title is a short summary, and some projects may use machine learning without saying so. What it does mean is that the honest answer to the question we asked is three, not 158, and that a program which agrees with what you expected deserves the hardest check.

Data: Gobierno Regional de Arequipa, Proyectos Cofinanciados por ProInnovate en Arequipa (2019 to 2024), ODC-By. The counts are ours. "digital" shrinks because titles also say digitales and digitalización; "software" does not change because no other Spanish word in these titles contains it. The three AI titles are the 1 with the word IA plus 2 that write out inteligencia artificial.

1. Under 8, a word hunt. Write the word MARIA on paper. Can you find the word IA inside it? Is MARIA a word about computers?
2. Blocks, ages 8 to 10. Build a list of six short words and a block that checks whether each one contains the letters "ia". Which ones say yes?
3. Early Python, ages 10 to 12. Start from Version 1, print the first ten matches, and for each one underline the word that caused it.
4. Ages 13 and over. Version 2 finds "IA" but would miss "I.A." with dots. Add a test case with that spelling, watch it fail, and fix the program.
5. Going further. Count the titles that mention datos, plataforma or aplicación as whole words, then write a short paragraph on what kind of innovation the region funds most.

Pairings are our suggestion. Under-13s never use adult AI chatbot accounts in our classes, and teenagers use AI tools only within each provider's age rules; our AI tools age guide lists them.

Spanish-speaking parents who want the background on AI courses in English can read curso de inteligencia artificial en inglés en Perú. For Python in more depth, see the Python course for Peru.

Peru keeps UTC minus 5 hours all year with no daylight saving (tz database, America/Lima). India keeps UTC plus 5 hours 30 minutes. India is therefore 10 hours 30 minutes ahead of Arequipa, and the gap never changes.

With no clock changes in either country, a slot agreed now stays the same all year. You choose your time in your own clock when booking. Peru's school year began on 16 March 2026, and the summer before it is a popular moment to start, keeping the same hour once colegio returns.