As a seventeen year old student in a £45 million pound school campus, it is rather unthinkable to imagine a school without three tremendous colour-coded floors, a glass ceiling with pyramidal details above our canteen area, a stash of interactive smart boards just itching to be used and thousands of books, textbooks and jotters just waiting for their spines to be creased. Thousands of miles away from Port Glasgow High School is Nguludi High in which the pupils complete exams in cramped classrooms with extreme limitations regarding their school buildings, opportunities and resources. Their days are long in the crackling, dry heat and for many pupils at Nguludi High, they must walk for miles to reach their school whilst I am driven in the comfort of a car to my own school gates. Whilst contemplating the duality of our schools I found myself drowning in the idea of perspective - is a school building or destination really a limitation to the mind?
Poverty and education
When our school became involved in the Scotland Malawi Partnership, my immediate thoughts turned to poverty and scarcity. Our partnership with Nguludi High has opened my eyes to the diversity of our cultures but also ironically the similarities of our schools and pupils - something I never dreamed would even exist. My initial visions of poverty and scarcity were true in terms of the destitution and harsh fates, particularly of girls my own age in Malawi. Old African tradition and economic realities force many girls to drop out of school in order to marry, more than half of the girls in Malawi are married by age 18 and more than a quarter of all girls ages 15-19 have already given birth, whilst most girls in Scotland attend school, study and complete homework. We are entirely fortunate not to find ourselves suffocated by the authority and responsibility of motherhood and marriage at such a young and vulnerable age, most of us still depend heavily upon our own mothers. However, poverty lurks within our school community in a very different way.
“the Scotland Malawi Partnership is not about charity or pity, it’s about allowing us to expand and grow in both culture and education”
My postcode and region are logged as socially and economically deprived. Our school building may appear extravagant and contemporary to those who read my description but it hides a bleak kind of poverty within its walls and two metre high windows. Unemployment in our close knit community is rife and many young people struggle to leave school with a sufficient amount of qualifications, therefore making it particularly hard for them to find their passion and chase their dreams. Education is the reality of escapism.
Learning from each other
In Malawi education is viewed as the way out of the maze that is poverty in an undeveloped country, education in Scotland is our key to achieving a good job, hence avoiding poverty in a developed country. Our goals as school units are similar and the more I think about our school communities, the more I realise that the Scotland Malawi Partnership is not about charity or pity, it’s about allowing us to expand and grow in both culture and education – we learn from each other.
Making connections
Our school staff keep in regular contact with the staff in Nguludi High via WhatsApp. We have exchanged cultural and educational gifts such as our in unique “Scottish Box” containing items like Irn Bru and dumpling, we also sent away some of our SQA exam papers from various subjects across our broad Scottish curriculum. Nguludi High responded gratefully to our gift by sending us some intricate and personal items from Malawi such as fabric painted tapestries, and some of their exam papers in subjects such as mathematics and agriculture.
“Our schools partnership has shaped my education in a way that exams and studying never could.”
Since our schools partnership we have blossomed as a school community, through annual videos, photographs and letters. The content of our school assemblies are always bursting with the happiness that radiates from the photos of our partnership school thousands of miles away. Although I have never personally visited Nguludi High in Malawi, I feel a strong connection with the pupils there. There is something truly touching about the photographs of pupils in their hazy classrooms wearing our school ties and holding our prefect posters. I long to know all of their names and listen to their hopes and dreams.
As Head Girl in Port Glasgow High School, I am ambitious in communicating with the Head Girl of Nguludi High. Although we are worlds apart, we are similar. Our schools partnership has shaped my education in a way that exams and studying never could. From Scotland to Malawi – we are one.
This article was previously published in the Scotsmen and won the Scotland Malawi Partnership national writing competition.
