Despite a global focus on access to education, retention in school is a serious challenge. From 2021 to 2024, we’re partnering with the Education Above All Foundation’s Educate A Child programme to support more than 5,100 children in Cambodia and Nepal to stay in school and realise their right to education.

Timely and targeted drop-out interventions

One-third of the world’s 59 million out of school children attended school in the past but dropped out. Poverty, gender, discrimination and geographic remoteness are the most common factors linked to school dropout. Through our Dropout Prevention Programme, in partnership with Educate A Child, we’re supporting UWS students to continue claiming the education that’s their right.

Our target is to support more than 5,100 most at-risk children in Cambodia and Nepal stay in school by 2024.

Building personalised retention plans

We’ve formed School Retention Teams (SRT) at each of the 127 schools involved in our Dropout Prevention Programme. This group works, alongside school leaders and teachers, to identify the children most likely to drop out. Once a child is identified as at risk of dropping out, the SRT team offers targeted support to help them to overcome barriers and to stay in education. So far, we’ve developed customised retention plans for 3,681 students, including:

• Home visits with the parents of 2,000+ students;
• Additional school supplies for 3,100+ students;
• Evening classes for 3,100+ students; and
• Extra tuition for 900+ students

Individual retention plans are reinforced by broader, community-level interventions. For example, in all 127 communities covered by the project, we hold regular community meetings and have set up girls’ clubs and mothers’ groups, creating spaces for students and their families to raise and discuss the challenges they face.