Introduction

STiR Education, a valued partner project of the Development Consortium (DC), is an international non-governmental organization that champions the enhancement of educational systems. Established in 2012, STiR's mission is to motivate continuous learning and improvement among children, school leaders, and teachers.

With significant reach in India, Uganda, and Indonesia, STiR has impacted over 200,000 teachers and 6 million children, fostering vibrant learning communities across 111 districts in India and Uganda. This partnership aligns with DC's commitment to supporting sustainable educational practices and lifelong learning opportunities worldwide.

In India StiR works in Delhi, TamilNadu and Karnataka.

Background

The founder of STiR EDUCATION, Sharath Jeevan was born in India. He was frustrated to learn that the Indian government had built one million new schools, but its children were not thriving and learning. It seemed teachers were seen as the problem, not the solution, which he didn’t believe to be true.

So he started STiR to change that narrative. The project has grown its impact from 25 teachers in Delhi to 200,000 teachers across India and Uganda. And they still have a long way to go to reach our 2030 goal of 10 million teachers and 300 million children.

STiR Education was established in response to multiple global challenges such as conflicts, pandemics, climate crises, increasing inequalities, and rapid technological changes. These challenges underscore the necessity for lifelong learning, which STiR Education facilitates through improvements in educational systems.

Goals and Objectives

STiR Education focuses on:

Rekindling intrinsic motivation (read more about it below) at all levels to foster significant behavioral and attitudinal changes.
Continuous iterative improvement across all program levels to contribute to sustainable change.
Strengthening partnerships with governments and other entities to ensure the sustainability of educational improvements.

Implementation Strategy

The project employs the principles of autonomy, mastery and purpose throughout all the work they carry out. STiR Education operates based on three fundamental strategies:

Behavioural Change: Engaging with government partners to define and promote desired behaviors, utilizing role-modeling and positive relationships.
Iterative Improvement: Fostering a culture of ongoing developmental efforts within its peer networks, where teachers and officials learn and implement new strategies and use data for better decision-making.
Government and Partnerships: Recognizing the importance of government involvement to ensure the long-term sustainability of educational reforms.

The project uniquely occupies the position to focus on reigniting intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence. When intrinsically motivated, a person is moved to act for the fun or challenge entailed rather than because of external products, pressures, or rewards.

STiR has now been working to reignite intrinsic motivation at scale within education systems for ten years. The project model has worked across whole education systems in partnership with governments. The project aims to change behaviours at every level and ensure that these are sustained.

Impact and Future Direction

STiR Education's impact is also evident through various case studies, including one with IIEP-UNESCO focused on Delhi, which highlighted the positive effects of its programs on teacher collaboration and student outcomes.

Future plans

Over the next few years, STiR Education’s strategy, titled 'Innovate, Advocate, Motivate', aims to:

Realize sustainable systemic behavior changes that deepen over time.
Support COVID-19 recovery efforts (as education was hit the hardest), increasing equity and sharing learnings with governments and the broader sector.
Advocate for changes in the educational sector, promoting further investment in intrinsic motivation and lifelong learning.
Achieve autonomy across all levels of STiR, enhancing internal clarity and operational efficiency to better fulfill its mission.