In Malawi, most families speak Chichewa or other indigenous languages as their first language, but English is the country's official language. A good grasp of English has become necessary in accessing information (there is a shortage of Internet content, newspapers etc written in Chichewa), higher education, employment, global commerce and, therefore, in bringing about economic development. This is crucial in a country consistently ranked in the bottom ten worldwide in measures of poverty such as GDP per capita, with over half the population living on less than $1 per day. Currently 1 in 4 of Malawi's young adults cannot read and write in any language.

Government policy dictates that all school subjects are to be taught in English, even though fluency in this second language is limited, amongst some teachers as well as pupils. This is one factor contributing to pupils' poor understanding of concepts and to primary school final exam pass rates being as low as 50% in some rural areas. As children cannot enter secondary school until they have passed these exams, many extra years can be spent repeating phases of education, contributing to huge class sizes (as many as 200 children). This in turn negatively impacts on learning by further stretching an already short supply of resources and promoting a less interactive teaching style.

This project therefore aims to improve pupil outcomes by developing a network of teachers who are taking on the role of Literacy Leaders for their respective schools. They are embracing the project very keenly and are already making an impact. Indeed we have seen improvements in school attendance and in exam results. For example, one school's pass rates have increased from 64% to 94% since the project was established in October 2017, compared to the national average which has only changed by 2%.

Literacy Leaders meet together regularly in a hub where capacity building focuses on:

- enhancing teachers' own English fluency; 

- developing effective pedagogy (teaching strategies) for teaching English as a second language, and exploring lesson ideas;

- dovetailing English skills with other curriculum areas;

- accessing / creating teaching and learning resources;

- using links with schools in the UK to provide exciting purposes for writing for children in both countries as well as enabling global citizenship; 

- building relationships with nurseries whose attendees will enter each primary school, to support the teaching of early literacy skills such as phonics;

- establishing mentoring systems within their schools in order to share their expertise with their other teaching colleagues.

All this is done with care to show respect for- and preserve- children's mother tongues as well as improving their English.  Indeed, many of the teaching strategies are designed to enhance learning across the curriculum in any language. This project pursues partnership, empowerment, efficiency and sustainability. It is hoped that the successes of this project can be built upon to expand into neighbouring communities in the future. Rachel, a teacher and international development graduate from the UK, designed and managed the project initially (unpaid) but has now handed over to a Malawian co-ordinator who she supports.

Here are some examples of what your donations will help provide for the project:

£50 could enable 10 nursery teachers to attend phonics training sessions by covering the cost of their transport and refreshments.

£10 will buy a month's stationary for the Literacy Leaders to make notes from their training and 100 laminating pouches for making re-usable educational resources.

£5 provides a school with a crucial internet bundle for teachers to research points of grammar and access teaching ideas and resources.

Costs are estimated as procurement is not always as simple as in the UK.

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