It Takes a Community. Pamoja Tudumishe Elimu – Together, Let’s Sustain Education

It Takes a Community. Pamoja Tudumishe Elimu – Together, Let’s Sustain Education documents three years of the Pamoja Tudumishe Elimu (PTE) project that we implemented in Kenya and Tanzania with the support of Education Above All’s Educate A Child Programme. The project aimed to improve retention and meaningful engagement in quality primary education for children at risk of dropping out, reaching more than 11,000 children across the two countries.

The publication explores the multiple and interconnected factors that can push children out of school - from poverty and harmful social norms to protection risks, learning barriers and weak support systems - and shows how addressing them requires action beyond the classroom. Through a coordinated response involving schools, families, communities and institutions, PTE worked to ensure that children could not only access education, but remain engaged, learn and thrive in safe and inclusive environments.

The report reads the project’s experience through our CARES Framework - Community, Access, Rights, Expression and Safety - five interconnected dimensions that place children at the centre of education and recognise inclusion as a shared responsibility. Combining quantitative evidence from the project’s monitoring system with qualitative insights and children’s, families’ and communities’ own experiences, the publication captures the emerging changes generated by the intervention and the lessons they offer for future education programming.

At its core, It Takes a Community shows that preventing dropout is not the responsibility of schools alone. It requires stronger networks of support around children, early identification of risks, meaningful participation, protection and collective action - so that every child has the opportunity to stay in school, learn and fulfil their potential.