Increasing school attendance and retention in refugee settings: Participatory development of the SchoolLinks intervention.

This study aimed to develop an intervention to improve consistent school attendance in participation with caregivers, teachers, and other stakeholders, in refugee settings in Uganda. In Phase 1, we organized four group model building workshops with caregivers and teachers in four refugee settlements to identify factors influencing attendance and caregiver engagement in education, and generate proposed actions to address them. We synthesized the outputs into a causal map and set of intervention strategies. These were reviewed through four respondent validation workshops with caregivers, teachers, school management, and representatives from refugee settlement authorities, international organisations, and local government. The resultant intervention - SchoolLinks - was field tested in one school with students and teachers of Primary 3 and Accelerated Education Programme 1 (government-run non-formal education supporting refugee and out-of-school children to complete primary school). Feedback was systematically collected from school staff, caregivers, children and community members to inform adaptations to improve the SchoolLinks design. Group model building revealed that attendance and retention were influenced by caregivers' attitudes toward education and encouragement towards their children, which affected children's motivation to attend school. Relationships between caregivers and teachers, mediated by their communication, mutual knowledge, and constrained by language barriers, influenced caregivers' attitudes and levels of encouragement. Broader contextual factors, including poverty and lack of safety, undermined attendance and retention. SchoolLinks comprises six complementary strategies: (1) caregiver-teacher meetings, (2) meeting translation, (3) enrolment week with digital data capture, (4) attendance monitoring and incentives, (5) homework clubs, and (6) children walking in groups to school. Field testing supported the intervention's acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility. This multi-phase participatory approach provides insights into intervention development in refugee contexts. Future research should aim to identify the intervention's mechanism(s) of action, analyse cost-effectiveness and cost-efficiency, engage children in further development, and assess the transferability of SchoolLinks to other settings.