£400,000 funding unveiled for Malawi teaching drive

A SCOTTISH-funded teacher training scheme in Malawi was announced today marking the fifth anniversary of the Co-operation Agreement between the countries.

The Scottish Government is to provide 400,000 of funding, which will help up to 1,000 women become primary school teachers in the African country.

The relationship with Malawi was initiated under previous first minister Jack McConnell and has continued under the SNP.

External affairs minister Fiona Hyslop said: "Since 2005, more than 13 million has been invested into 207 diverse and sustainable projects that are making a real difference to improving people's lives in Malawi.

"I pay tribute to former first minister Jack McConnell and the previous Scottish Executive for its commitment to establishing an International Development Fund and a formal relationship with Malawi, both of which this administration has built on."

The fifth anniversary of the signing of the agreement between the governments of Scotland and Malawi is on Wednesday.

The Scottish Government is to support the schools-based teacher training programme through the Open University for women in isolated and rural areas of Malawi as part of the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (Tessa) programme.

The Scottish Government support will enable 1,000 scholarships for the Tessa project to be made available to women who want to be primary school teachers.

The first scholarship holders will start training in April 2011.