THEY are more than 5000 miles apart - but teachers in Glasgow say the similarities with Malawi are stark.

This is the fourth year of Glasgow City Council's Malawi Leaders of Learning project and new teams of teachers and pupils have flown to the African country to share their experience.

They plan to look at poverty both at home and in Malawi to find out the impact it has on learning.

Stephen McGowan, Graphic Design Manager with the council, has been one of the group leaders for the Malawi Young Leaders of Learning project.

He said: "The impact that poverty has on education is just like it is in Glasgow.

"We think that the two places are worlds apart but actually we have high levels of poverty in the city that impact hard on learning.

"Our pupils have been looking at this over the past year and I think they have been quite shocked sometimes at the similarities they've found."

The first group of Glasgow teachers went out to Malawi in 2012 and since then the Malawi Leaders of Learning scheme has grown and expanded.

It now includes the Malawi Young Leaders of Learning, for senior pupils, and became a registered charity in 2013.

The aim of the charity is to improve standards of education in both Malawi's South West Education Division and Glasgow, by sharing experience and expertise

A total of 18 young people from St Mungo's and Eastbank Academy travelled to Malawi last month with their five leaders, led by Stephen.

Each pupil has taken part in a year-long leadership programme that culminates in a visit to Blantyre to work and meet their peers in two of the MLOL schools - Chilomoni Primary School and Catholic Institute primary school.

To take part in the scheme, pupils must commit to working in their local communities to try to improve the lives of people living there.

They also must study the impact poverty has on the quality of education they receive, how it impacts on pupils' learning and on their lives.

It is also important for both sets of pupils to discover and understand the similarities they have with their Malawian peers - even though they live miles apart in very different circumstances.

Pupils involved in the scheme work towards a community award at Higher level as well as completing their sports leadership certificate, which they will finish when they return home from Africa.

As part of International Day of the African Child on June 16 this year the MYLOLS held a debate in the City Chambers with other senior pupils from across the city on the impact of poverty and how they can help alleviate it in their communities.

Stephen added: "There is an African saying that we try to impress on the pupils, 'If you want to go first, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.'

"We're trying to get them to spread the message, to alter the way we think.

"I'm passionate about Malawi but I'm more passionate about Glasgow and I really believe this project can help our young people to help our city."

Malawi Leader of Learning has links with the Lord Provost's Malawi fund and recently staff from Lord Provost Sadie Docherty's office travelled to Malawi with computer equipment.

As part of the council-wide team effort, Cordia supported June's International Day of the African Child with an African-themed menu in schools.

Schools taking part picked an African country and learned different facts and figures as part of their global citizenship curriculum work.

The event raised £2100 for MLOL from the sales of school meals on the day.

Schools across the city are involved with the scheme.

Rosshall Academy held a whole-school Malawi Day last month to raise funds for two of its teachers who are leaving to teach in the African country for a month.

They held Malawi-themed activities with staff and pupils getting involved in Malawian music, food sales and raffles.

As well as involvement from Malawi Leaders of Learning, the school involved Mary's Meals, which works in the country, and the Scotland Malawi Partnership.

Rosshall staff now hope that in 2017 they will be able to take a group of pupils out to Malawi.

The teachers involved in the MLOL part of the project go to Malawi for four weeks.

A total of 12 teachers are taking part, including early years, ASL, active schools coordinators, PE and drama teachers who will be working in partner schools and also visiting two new schools.

Like the pupils involved, the teachers have been working together as a group for one year.

Their role when they arrive in Malawi is to share good practice with their African counterparts and work with a group of Malawian headteachers who visited Glasgow in April this year.

They will be helping the schools with their improvement plans, establishing libraries set up with funding from MLOL and helping to introduce practices the teachers use in Glasgow schools.

Maureen McKenna, Executive Director of Education, Glasgow City Council said: “Our project is going from strength to strength each year with more schools and communities across the city than ever before benefitting from MLOL as well as the people of Malawi.

“Our countries face very similar challenges and we want to do everything that we can to make sure that poverty does not impact on the quality of education that our children have a right to have access to.”