Illustrative engagement. A representative scenario showing how we approach this kind of work in education. It does not describe a specific client; outcomes are described qualitatively.
Industry overview
What is shaping education
Schools, universities, edtech companies and education programmes need evidence from students, parents and teachers, and marketing that reaches families at the right time.
- Parents research schools and courses online
- Edtech usage depends on teacher and parent support
- Programmes must show learning outcomes
Client background
An education NGO, working in Bihar & Jharkhand. This is an illustrative engagement: a representative scenario showing how we approach this kind of work, not a named client project.
- Organisation
- An education NGO
- Sector
- Education
- Team engaged
- IT & Development
- Services
- Offline data collection (CAPI), Quantitative research
Client challenge
The NGO needed reliable evidence of learning gains for its funders.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: measuring learning outcomes in after-school programmes.
- Design around the real needs of children.
- Define requirements and success criteria the solution would be tested against.
- Deliver a reliable, secure solution the team can run and extend.
Target audience
The work focused on 3,000 children.
- children3,000
Audiences we typically reach in education
StudentsParentsTeachers and principalsEdtech usersEmployers
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Bihar & Jharkhand. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
An iterative delivery approach: discovery, design, build and test in short cycles, with the client reviewing each step.
- 1Brief
- 2Child assessments
- 3Parent survey
- 4Insight
Trained assessors used simple reading and maths tasks with children at baseline and endline, alongside a parent survey.
Offline data collection (CAPI)Quantitative research
Sampling strategy
- children
- 3,000
- Users and stakeholders from every affected team took part in discovery workshops and acceptance testing.
Data collection
- Requirements were gathered through workshops, process walk-throughs and a review of existing systems and data.
Data quality & validation
- Peer code review on every change
- Automated and manual testing
- User-acceptance testing with the client
- Release checklist and rollback plan
Data analysis
- Usage and performance monitoring after launch
- Defect and support-ticket trends
- Process time before and after
Key findings
- Reading gains were strongest where sessions ran four days a week.
Consistency of sessions matters more than session length.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: consistency of sessions matters more than session length.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: reading gains were strongest where sessions ran four days a week.
- Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.
Business impact
- The NGO standardised session frequency.
What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Deployed solution with documentation and handover
- Support and maintenance plan
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: which admissions campaigns work?