About STiR Education

STiR Education transforms education systems by reigniting intrinsic motivation in teachers and officials to improve learning outcomes for all children. Operating across multiple countries as both an implementation program and advisory body, STiR’s programs have improved engagement and learning outcomes for over 12 million children.

At the core of STiR’s learning framework are three principles: peer learning, action and feedback, and data-based decision making. With data collected daily from the field and used for monthly reflections, design iterations, and field-level action planning, STiR’s program teams, leadership, donors, and boards all depend on timely, accurate insights.

The Challenge: Drowning in Data, Starving for Insights

Before Dalgo, STiR’s data journey was a manual, time-intensive process that undermined their real-time data collection philosophy. As Naveli, Lead Data Manager in the M&E team, describes:

“Before Dalgo, the process of cleaning, analyzing, and preparing decks for monthly, quarterly, and annual reviews was extremely tedious. It took us at least a week to complete the entire process. Why? Because this work had to be done across multiple geographies, each with its own customized needs. Being a lean team, usually just one or two members handled this entire process by themselves. This took away the essence of having real-time data — teams couldn’t get timely insights to plan their next actions effectively.”

The specific pain points included:

•   Time-intensive manual processes: One week per review cycle, with data spanning 25,000 records and 100 columns for each record across six regions

•   Fragmented tools: Multiple platforms for data collection (POI Mapper, SurveyCTO) and visualization (Mammoth, Zoho Analytics, Data Studio) created integration challenges

•   Limited accessibility: Dashboards weren’t flexible enough to serve diverse stakeholders, from field teams to donors

•   Lost strategic focus: M&E teams spent time preparing reports instead of building data literacy and capacity

As Arun, a senior manager at STiR, explained: “Every monthly reflection earlier involved at least two days of work for the monitoring and evaluation team, and we were doing this for every region. We had six regions, which meant six monthly reflections — about a day to a day and a half for each region.”

The Solution: Dalgo’s End-to-End Data Platform

Dalgo brought STiR’s data infrastructure into a unified, automated platform—transforming how the organization collects, processes, and visualizes behavioral indicators from teachers, principals, and officials across their programs. Built on an open-source stack, Dalgo automated the entire data pipeline and made insights accessible to everyone.

The Impact: Time Saved, Decisions Accelerated

The transformation was immediate and measurable:

5x

Reduction in report preparation time

1 week → 1 hour

Time to prepare monthly reviews

1 week → 1 day

Annual review preparation reduced from week-long effort

Organizational Transformation Across Teams

M&E Team:

•   Shifted focus from repetitive report generation to strategic data quality improvement and capacity building

•   Now able to focus on the nuances of monitoring rather than just producing numbers

Program Teams:

•   Enabled to conduct monthly reflections independently without M&E bottlenecks

•   Access consolidated data through self-service dashboards to create action plans and iterate field interventions

•   Pull real-time insights during stakeholder meetings to update partners on progress

Leadership & Donors:

•   Dashboard accessibility expanded to design teams, donors, partnerships, and board members

•   Stronger, data-backed communication with government and external stakeholders

•   Ability to track performance trends and align decisions with design outcomes in real time

The True Test: What If Dalgo Disappeared?

When asked what would happen if Dalgo suddenly disappeared, Arun’s response revealed the depth of integration:

“A lot would change. The amount of work we would have to put in would increase drastically. The team has become dependent on the data we can generate easily now, and without Dalgo, we would struggle to repeat the same process over and over. The monitoring and evaluation team can now focus on the nuances of monitoring rather than just the numbers. If Dalgo were to disappear tomorrow, it could actually cause a huge cascading effect across the organization.”

Key Takeaway for Education NGOs

STiR’s transformation demonstrates how the right data infrastructure can fundamentally changes how an organization operates. By automating data pipelines and democratizing access to insights, Dalgo enabled STiR to shift from data processing to data-driven action, ultimately serving their mission to improve learning outcomes for millions of children more effectively.

Ready to Transform Your Data?

If your organization is sitting on piles of data but struggling to turn it into timely insights, Dalgo can help. Built exclusively for nonprofits, Dalgo’s open-source platform transforms your messy data into reliable insights and compelling narratives that prove your work matters. Get Started by booking a call with us today.

Know your data. Share your story.

Partner Organization: STiR Education — working with school systems to strengthen teacher motivation and improve learning outcomes for millions of children.