Sharath Jeevan is the CEO of STIR Education, a non-profit working to improve education for disadvantaged children globally. STIR identifies innovative teaching practices used by teachers and aims to scale up the best practices. STIR recently started operations in India and has visited 250 schools to identify micro-innovations, like using bollywood music to teach poetry. STIR hopes to select the top 25 ideas to test and potentially scale across India to improve education quality, especially for disadvantaged children.

1. CORPORATE SPEAK
Creating a STIR for
better education
SHARATH JEEVAN served as Founding CEO
of Teaching Leaders, an initiative in the UK’s
most disadvantaged schools, and was formerly
Head of Social Ventures at eBay UK. He is CEO
of GlobalGiving.co.uk. He has an Economics
degree from Cambridge, Masters from Oxford,
and MBA from INSEAD. Now, he tells Puja
Shah about his initiative in India called Schools
& Teachers Innovating for Results Education (STIR), an NGO working on
grassroots ‘micro-innovations’ of schools and teachers across the world to
help disadvantaged children.
Tell us about your journey till you started STIR. What would you say, have been the most
I’m a social entrepreneur by career. I have set up an valuable lessons you’ve learnt on the way?
NGO which is trying to make a social impact both in the Probably the first lesson I’ve learnt is that having
UK and overseas. Previously I worked in the corporate a good link between your work experience and
sector with the consultants Booz and Company and eBay education is very useful. It helps to have work
as well. I also ran an IT company in Asia about a decade experience of a few years before doing the MBA
ago. Along the way, I’ve taken time to work in the social because you can really apply what you are learning
sector as well. I did my MBA at INSEAD in France. to practical experiences. Secondly is that it is always
good to continue to learn even if you are not in a
Tell us about your education. formal setting. Even now when I’m not studying,
I spent my first few years in India, did my schooling mostly I’m lucky enough to be able to go for conferences
in the UK and the Middle East, in the British system and and hear eminent people speak. I read a lot about
completed my undergraduate degree in Economics from what is happening in the field, I meet a lot of people
Cambridge. My first stint, for four and a half years was who are developing new things and innovating in
with Booz and Company – the management consultants, lots of ways, therefore, I’m still learning; and being
which gave me practical experience. I worked with able to continue to learn, even if it is not in a formal
ActionAid for a while. Following this I set up an IT educational environment, is useful.
company. I then enjoyed working in the corporate sector
but after running the company for a while, I decided to How did STIR start out? What does it hope
take a breather and consolidate the learning from this to achieve?
sector. So I made up my mind to do the MBA. This was Basically it came from the realisation that a lot
very useful as it introduced me to different fields and of schools and teachers should be at the heart of
subject areas of management. changing education and approving standards. In
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2. CORPORATE SPEAK
India, about 60 million more Schools and teachers have come through. We have had
children are going to school than almost 200 ideas come to us from
before which is an amazing figure. should be at the heart of those visits and we are taking the
Also, about 95% have access to best 45-50 through to the final
free schooling which is again changing education. selection in the next expecting to
pretty impressive. Many other
The quality of education actually pick the 25 we want to
countries have also had an equal work with in Delhi. We want to
level of improvement, but what is is not always high test and see if these can be scaled
also important to note is that the up. Just to mention some of the
quality of education is not always enough, especially ideas that had potential – One is
high enough, especially for the
disadvantaged children. So, at
for the disadvantaged that we had a teacher who found
that kids are often very good at
STIR, we think about solutions to children in the world. math when they are helping their
that, in terms of what the teachers parents in the shops or grocery
are already doing in the classrooms, in the way the stores but when in the classrooms, they can’t grasp
schools are being managed, in the way parents are concepts, so, she brought monopoly money into
being engaged. We have created an organisation that the classroom. Another teacher found that kids find
tries to find innovative teaching practices and choose poetry very difficult so she brought in bollywood
the best ones. We work with teachers, test if these music to make poetry relevant to them. These are
ideas would work with other schools and if required, small scale and low cost innovations but if they
we align with the government, private sector and could be rolled out across India they could make an
NGOs to get these ideas scaled up so that they can enormous difference.
reach millions of children across the globe, over the
coming years. What are the challenges you expect? Have
you faced any resistance?
What plans do you have for STIR India? Not yet. I think everyone has been very supportive.
Now that we are formally working in India, we have Initially, we were worried if teachers would want
been searching for the best ideas in Delhi, for the last to take part in this, since they are not being paid
three months. We are trying to find best ideas across for this. We have teachers innovation programmes,
both NGO run schools and affordable private schools wherein we will be helping train them to influence
where the fees are usually 300-400 rupees a month others, to measure performances and to enhance their
and also across government schools. The team in teaching methods. The most exciting thing is that an
Delhi has visited about 250 schools so far. Many ideas idea that might start in the east somewhere and end
up in Nairobi or Brazil. We are trying
to create a global network so that ideas
can flow to other parts of the world.
MBA specialising in social service
is an upcoming trend in India,
what skill-sets are required in this
sector?
What makes the social sector different
from the commercial sector is the
ability to communicate a clear vision in
a compelling way. Also, it is necessary
for someone in this sector to be able to
tell a story effectively and get people
to support you and the vision as well.
Passion and vision are most important
so is working in a large network. We
India needs more teachers to help disadvantaged children are a small organisation, employing
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3. CORPORATE SPEAK
Did your management education help
you reach this place in your career?
Yes it did. Enormously. It is always good to
have a general management perspective. It
covers all the key areas. It helps me when
I have to work on finance issues and also
when I have to strategise or consider partner
collaborations. It doesn’t make you an expert
but it helps in asking the right questions.
It is a good credibility sign as well. If
you want funding or are trying to attract
partnerships, most people like to know
that the person they are considering doing
STIR aims to better quality of education for disadvantaged kids. business with has a good management or a
business background.
less than ten staff members but we work with about It also provides you with a great network
35 partner organisations in India, ranging from the of people, in India as well as around the world.
Azim Premji foundation to Teach for India and of Many of my alumni are business leaders or are in the
course the government. So, being able help manage government and are very open to being approached.
and understand partners is a key skill in the social
sector. The third skill which is extremely important What is your opinion of management
is how to measure the impact - education in India?
understanding how to design a The most exciting It clearly has a lot of variety.
programme, what is working and But my main observation is
what needs to be changed. It is thing is that an idea that practicality of training is
difficult to measure success in this
field, whereas, in the commercial
might start in the East lacking. It is changing gradually
but compared to a lot of other
sector it is more straightforward somewhere and end up countries there is pretty meagre
to measure it in terms of financial work experience. There needs to be
gain. Lastly, if you are a leader in Nairobi or Brazil. We a stronger practical element, more
in your organisation you need to
raise funds effectively, to be able
are trying to create a useful internships and corporate
projects. Basically business
to get support and resources from global network for ideas schools in India should link the
foundations, the government or industry or corporate world more
corporates. to flow across the world. closely with classroom education.
What, according to you, are the most Your advice to young MBA aspirants who
challenging and rewarding aspects of your want to be achievers….
job? Be clear about your goal and try to find the right path
The most rewarding aspect is the range of people you to get there. Be open to moving around and trying
get to see. For example, I might visit a few schools different things. Some people are lucky. They come
in the morning, might meet a corporate partner later out of business school and they know exactly what
on to discuss a collaboration, after that I might meet they want to do. I did as well. I knew I wanted to
a policy maker to talk about the work we want to do. be a social entrepreneur but I wasn’t sure of how
So the range of people is really exciting. We also to get there. So I tried some years in consulting
see different parts of society collide with each other. where I learnt a lot about management life and how
People who might never meet socially actually come to approach problems. I spent some years in the
together to work. commercial sector as well. So basically you need
The challenging side is that we are still a young to be adventurous and not shy away from trying
organisation. We know what our vision is but we different experiences. It might ultimately lead you to
have to learn as we go along. where you want to be.
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