News
Our review of Keep Girls in School 2025
Catch up on all our news with our annual review which has just been published. Thanks to all our supporters who made 2025 our most successful year yet. Your generosity, advice and support means that 200 girls completed another year of secondary education – changing their lives for the better.
Keep Girls in School 2025: A second chance for girls to help them beat the odds
This was a big year for many of the 200 girls that we support through our Keep Girls in School Programme. The 100 students in the Ntichisi and Zomba Rural districts sat their national Junior Certificate of Education (JCE) exams in June, which a girls must pass if she is to progress to Year 3.
The results arrived in August, just before the new school year began on September 22 and once again the MIF scholars far exceeded the national average pass rate. Ninety-five girls sat the JCE exams. The results showed that 88 girls passed – 89 per cent of our scholars, compared to a national pass rate for girls of 73.5 per cent. The overall national pass rate was 77.6 per cent).
We are delighted to say that the seven girls who failed have been given a second chance to repeat Year 2 and resit the JCE exams next June. This new programme means that girls who fail their JCE exam will not have to leave school at the end of second year. Of the five who did not sit the exams, one girl had moved to another school earlier in the school year and four were absent because they had dropped out.
Of the four girls who dropped out of school, one was from Malomo CDSS and three from its neighbouring school Kaulatsitsi CDSS. This is a 4 percent drop-out, compared to the annual average rate of 10 per cent (UNICEF).It is a new school, only opened four years ago, and is situated in in a very conservative rural community where traditional beliefs about women and girls still hold sway. The headteacher Ellen Chinawaexplained that there were two issues at play: secondary education was not yet embedded in the local culture and girls are expected to give up education at the end of primary school as there is no value attached to a secondary education. She explained that when the school opened there were 30 girls in year 1, of that cohort there are now only five in Year 4.Our KGIS scholars are changing these outcomes.
The Kaulatsitsi pass rate of 18 girls out of 25 is 72 per cent, very close to the national average and there will be 25 girls in Year 2 and 3 supported by KCA and MIF – the entire year 3 cohort (21 girls) and 4 in Year 2 (repeating).
MIF scholars at Kaulatsitsi CDSS, October 2025
Our Malawi partner, WOLREC with support from the Foundation and our partner Keep A Child Alive and working with the headteacher and community leaders will deliver a sensitisation programme for parents and guardians early in 2026, to help them understand the benefits of keeping girls in school.
The other cohort of 100 girls are at schools in Balaka and Salima Districts. These girls range from year 1 students to year 4. This year 28 girls sat their national Malawi Certificate of Secondary Education exams (MSCE). with 12 passing. This is a pass rate of 43 per cent compared to the national pass rate for girls of 53 per cent and an overall pass rate of 58 per cent. The girls who failed have all been given the chance to repeat year 4 so that they may resit their MSCE exams in July 2026.
Margret (L) with Debora. Two of the students who will repeat Year 4 thanks to the Foundation’s Second Chance to Learn programme (MwayiWachiwiri Kwa A Tsikana)
James Menard, headteacher of Chembera CDSS in Balaka described the second chance programme as “life-changing’. He said: “I don’t know of any other donors that offers girls a second chance to sit their exams. Most only want to know if a girl finishes school, that is enough for them. This opportunity is life-changing.”
It is worth noting that there is a gulf between the national and district boarding schools, attended by children who perform best in primary school attend, and the community day secondary schools. The pass rate for the boarding schools is around 90 per cent. Education expert Benedicto Kondowe told the Nation newspaper recently that the attainment gap is troubling as itexposesthe deep systemic inequalities tied to resources, teacher capacity and learning environments in Malawi. He said: “The results are not merely a reflection of learners’ effort; they are a mirror of systemic inequities that, if unaddressed, will continue to limit Malawi’s human capital development and its aspirations under SDG 4 and Malawi 2063.”
In the McConnell International Foundation, this gap makes us even more determined to provide these scholarships to girls who would otherwise miss the opportunity.
Thanks to all our supporters, old and new, for making 2025 such a successful year
Fundraising is essential for our goals, in particular to support our Keep Girl’s in School programme. The Foundation would like to thank everyone who has supported our efforts this year – making it our most successful to date.
Our chairperson Lord Jack McConnell says: “Our Keep Girls in School programme depends on your generosity to keep 200 Malawi girls in secondary school where they belong. Your support transforms their lives, and in turn they will help transform their communities and the country. Education is the most sustainable and effective development tool. It lasts a lifetime. We are very grateful for your support.”
Artie’s Singing Kettle
In March we hosted a very special performance of Scotland’s best known children’s show, the Singing Kettle. Thanks to the generosity of Artie, who started the show with his wife Cilla more than 40 years ago, our sell-out show at Edinburgh’s St Bride’s Community Centre raised more than £1,500 for our Keep Girls in School programme, and a new generation of youngsters learned the words to Ye Cannae Shove Your Granny Aff the Bus. We hope to bring you news soon of a 2026 show.
Artie and his famous Singing Kettle
Kiltwalk 2025
The centrepiece of our annual fundraising efforts is now the Kiltwalk, held each September. This is Scotland’s largest walking event, with over 216,000 taking part since 2016. It is a fantastic way to raise money, meet new friends and catch up with old ones while keeping fit. Thanks to the Kiltwalk teamand the Hunter Foundation for organising such an fantastic programme of events across Scotland.
The Foundation took part in the Edinburgh event on Sunday September 14. Our team this year was twice the size of last year’s and their efforts raised an amazing £17,500. This was DOUBLED thanks to the generosity of one of Scotland’s leading entrepreneurs, David Moulsdale. We are already organising for the 2026 Edinburgh Kiltwalk on Sunday, September 13 and hope to at least match, if not exceed, our 2025 total. If you would like to join our team, email us at mcconnellintfoundation@gmail.com and put KILTWALK 2026 in the subject field.
David Moulsdale announces his support for Keep Girls in School via The Sunday Mail
The McConnell International Foundation’s 2025 Kiltwalk team
The Big Give
In October we took part for the first time in a Big Give campaign. The Big Give foundation brings together large donors with charities, matching the funds that a charity raises during one of the Big Give’s campaigns. We took part in the Women and Girls’ event which ran from October 8 for seven days. We were delighted to exceed our target of £5,000, with the help of some of our regular donors and several new supporters.
Keep A Child Alive
We could not deliver our Keep Girls in School scholarship programme without the support of our partners, including Keep A Child Alive (KCA), the foundation set up by singer Alicia Keys and Leigh Blake in 2003. KCA supports our work in four secondary schools in two districts in Malawi, where we provide scholarships for 100 girls, with grants to allow the 25 students at Malomo CDSS to be full-time boarders. We look forward to working with KCA in 2026 to help with their mission of changing the world, one child at a time.
2024: A busy and productive year
As 2024 comes to an end, it is time to reflect on what the Foundation has achieved this year. After our conference in November 2023 on the role international volunteering has to play in promoting effective global citizenship we published a good practice guide, which you can download here.
It was informed by a range of stakeholders from across Scotland and the rest of the UK as well as in the global South. VSO Malawi organised a seminar with the Foundation in February which was invaluable in helping compile the guide, and they are planning to distribute it to youth groups and NGOs early in 2025.
Pictured below: Chimwemwe Khumbo of VSO Malawi taking delivery of the good practice guides in October
2024 was the busiest year so far for our Keep Girls in School programme which now provides 200 girls across four districts in Malawi with scholarships and other support so that they can complete their secondary education. Our scholars still face many challenges: text books are scarce in Malawi where most students have to share essential books with up to 10 other students. And the long distances that the girls have to travel to school – some walk up to fifteen kilometres a day there and back – mean that their attendance can be patchy, particularly during the rainy season. But the scholarships have transformed their lives, meaning they can focus on their studies instead of worrying about whether their family can afford their school fees and uniforms, which are compulsory.
Pictured below are the MIF scholars at Naisi Community Day Secondary school in Zomba.
The 2023-24 intake of MIF scholars did very well in their exams this year – with both Form 4 and Form 2 students beating the national average pass rate. You can read all about their achievements in our annual report which is available to download here.
Planning for next year is already underway. We are very grateful to our partners and individual donors for their support, but our fundraising never stops. We are hosting a performance of the Singing Kettle – Scotland’s best known children’s show – on Saturday 1 March. Thanks to the generosity of Artie all the proceeds will go directly to Keep Girls in School. You can buy tickets here.
And we are planning to build on our success in the 2024 Edinburgh Kiltwalk, where our team of walkers raised £10,000. The 2025 event is on Sunday 14September. Get in touch at mmconnellintfoundation@gmail.com if you would like to join our team.
Keep Girls in School: 200 girls get set for new school year
The new school year in Malawi starts on Monday 16 September, and the foundation is delighted to support 200 girls as they embark on the next stage of their secondary education.
We have recruited 38 new girls for this coming academic year in the Salima and Balaka districts, where our scheme started in 2021. As girls finish their four years of secondary education, or leave school for any reason, we always fill their place.
Those students who finished their secondary education when they sat their Malawi Certificate of Secondary Education (MCSE) exams in July will not know the results until October at the earliest. But we have great news about one of our scholars, Saina Bwanali who passed her MCSE with flying colours last year.
Saina (19) has just won a coveted place at Mzuzu University to study a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing and Midwifery. She was only able to return to school after the pandemic because of support from the foundation, and she is the first of our scholars to go to university. She will start her course in November.
Recent figures from UNICEF Malawi show that the dropout rate of girls in secondary education is currently running at 9.5 per cent. Dropping out because of early marriage is all too common in Malawi, which has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the region, and this was one of the reasons the foundation decided to focus on supporting the most vulnerable girls to stay in secondary education, where they belong.
Our dropout rate among MIF scholars this year is only 1 per cent. Only one girl out of the 100 we support in Ntichisi and Zomba Rural with match funding from US Foundation Keep A Child was forced to leave school but we are hopeful that she will return to education once she and the baby are settled.
Looking forward to the new school year, we have plans to run more classes on reproductive health and menstruation. We have also secured funding to allow the 25 girls we support at Malomo CDSS to board in the school hostel. Many of them have long distances to walk to school, often without a meal before setting off and it can be unsafe for girls walking home alone in the late afternoon or early evening.
We also have a busy fundraising schedule ahead of us, kicking off with the Edinburgh Kiltwalk on Sunday 15 September. The foundation has a 12-strong team taking part and we hope to raise £3000. You can make a donation here. And later in the year, we will unveil a very special event which we are holding in March 2025. Watch this space.
Keep Girls in School: Scholarship programme doubles in size as Malawi’s new school year starts
It is back to school week in Malawi – and the McConnell International Foundation has doubled the number of girls it helps keep in school.
According to UNESCO there are 4.5 million children and young people enrolled in education, with the majority – 3.7 million (83 per cent) in primary school.
Only about one fifth of young people are able to start their secondary education and boys outnumber girls by nearly 20 per cent. This is partly because they must pass exams at the end of primary school to be able to move up into senior school, but also because the cost is too prohibitive for many households.
Secondary education in Malawi is not free, even in the most basic secondary schools, which means many young people, particularly girls, miss out on the chance to complete secondary education because their family cannot afford the school fees, uniform and books.
Girls’ education can be less of a priority for many families. But now 200 girls receiving scholarships from the McConnell International Foundation don’t have to worry about the burden their education puts on family finances, and they are free to focus on their studies.
The Keep Girls in School scheme started in January 2022, in the wake of the global pandemic which saw a significant number of girls drop out of school. Working with our Malawi partner, the Women’s Legal Resources Centre (WOLREC) and with support from the TUUT Charitable Trust, we set up a programme to keep 100 marginalised girls in school, particularly those who had become young mothers.
And this school year we have doubled the number of girls we help, thanks to support from US foundation Keep a Child Alive. The programme now runs in four districts: Salima, Balaka, Ntchisi and Zomba Rural.
MIF Chairperson, Lord Jack McConnell, thanked our sponsors and congratulated the scholars: “We are very grateful to TUUT Charitable Trust, KCA and our other supporters. And we are very proud of thiose girsl who have come back to school and are working so hard to achieve their national certificates. I am really pleased that we can now work in two new districts and double the number of girls who receive their secondary education.”
Charity Mazengera, WOLREC’s programme manager said: “Every girl should have the opportunity to complete her schooling. As someone who grew up in a rural household, where there was not very much money, I know from personal experience how important scholarships are to the girls we support. Getting a secondary education will change their lives significantly for the better.”
Work with us to keep girls in school across Malawi.
- For only £10 a month, you can will support a girl complete her secondary education, so changing her future for the better. Your generous donation will pay for a girl’s school fees, her uniform and other essentials, including mentoring classes.
- The McConnell International Foundation will match your donation, so doubling the number of scholars we can support.
- And MIF can reclaim Gift Aid from the tax you pay for the current year, which will increase the value of your generous support by 25%.
- If you prefer you can make a one-off donation. However you choose to support us, we can guarantee that every pound we receive is spent on keeping girls in school.
- Email us at mcconnellintfoundation@gmail.com or donate through our JustGiving page.
What role does volunteering have to play in supporting young people become good global citizens?
The McConnell International Foundation is hosting a timely online event on Thursday 2 November to examine the role of international volunteering in global citizenship and sustainable development and to begin a conversation about what international volunteering means against a backdrop of de-colonisation, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate emergency.
This free online event will bring together key speakers from across Scotland, the rest of the UK and the global South to examine the role volunteering has to play in meeting our shared ambition for young people to become good global citizens and contribute to sustainable development across the globe.
The event will consider a range of volunteering activities, including school partnerships and other educational trips. It will also look at the contribution of volunteering to employee development and take a critical look at voluntourism. It will consider not just the opportunities available for school students, but for those in higher and further education and the early stages of their working life.
It will hear from leading figures in international development about the policy landscape in which volunteering operates, learn about the potential for effective links between young Scots and their peers in Scotland’s partner countries: Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Pakistan; and consider how best volunteering can support young Scots to think deeply and critically about equity and justice, and how they can minimise harm to our planet.
The event is co-chaired by Lord Jack McConnell, founder and chairperson of the McConnell International Foundation and Hon. Vera Kamtukule, Minister for Tourism in the Government of Malawi. Christina McKelvie MSP, Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development in the Scottish Government will give a keynote address. Other speakers will be added.
The conference will be streamed online to encourage participants to join from across Scotland, the rest of the UK, and the global South. As well as keynote speakers, there will be will interactive panel discussions, online networking opportunities and a post-conference report.
You are welcome to join us for this exciting and informative event, where you will have the chance to connect with other professionals, experts, and practitioners working in international volunteering, share your experiences and challenges and help contribute to the debate on this important topic.
Agenda
What role does volunteering have to play in supporting young people become good global citizens?
Thursday 2 November 2023
10:00 – 13.30 (GMT)
Kindly note that the agenda sessions and timings can be subject to change
10:00 Co-chairs’ welcome: Lord Jack McConnelland Hon Vera Kamtukule, Minister for Tourism, Government of Malawi, on context and focus for the conference
10:10 Host (David Lee) How the seminar will work, highlight speakers, summary of pre-event survey, how delegates can ask questions of speakers
10:15 Ministerial keynote address: Christina McKelvie, Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, Scottish Government
10:35 Overview from international development sector: Keynote speaker
10:55 International volunteering: What works? Keynote speaker:
11:15 Questions for speakers
11:25 Comfort break
11:40 Panel discussion: School partnerships/educational trips post-Covid
12:20 Panel discussion: The benefits of early career volunteering
13:00 What should international volunteering look like? Keynote speaker
13:25 Next steps: Lord Jack McConnell and Hon Vera Kamtukule
The First Lady of Malawi: Every girl child in Malawi should be given a chance to access quality education
Research shows that Malawi has one of the highest school drop-out rates for girls in Southern Africa. That is why the First Lady of Malawi, Her Excellency Monica Chakwera, has made improving girls’ education her priority during her term of office.
Her Shaping Our Future foundation supports vulnerable girls living in rural Malawi as well as street children, and the McConnell International Foundation (MIF) is proud to partner with the First Lady in a joint effort to keep girls in school.
MIF’s scholarship programme for 100 vulnerable girls attending secondary school in the Salima and Balaka districts is now in its second year, and the foundation has plans to at least double the number of scholars in 2023.
Students in Malawi often have to walk up to 10 kilometres to the nearest secondary school as transport costs are too high. This contributes to the high drop-out rate of girls.
School hostels provide girls with a safe environment during the school week, which is why the First Lady has made securing school hostels a priority for her foundation. She recently opened a new one for students attending the Katowo Community Day Secondary school, in Northern Malawi. The hostel was built with support from the Embassy of Japan in Malawi.
During his recent visit to Malawi Lord Jack McConnell joined the First Lady at a girls’ education summit in State House, Lilongwe, where they heard from students from Maganga community day secondary school about the many challenges they face.
At the meeting Lord McConnell promised more support for the girls in the MIF scholarship programme. He said: “We want to make sure that we not only give support for their school fees, uniforms and learning materials but also other support including mentoring. We want to help them be strong, so they can move on to further study and hopefully get a good job.”
The First Lady welcomed MIF’s work, saying that the foundation shared her vision. “Education, particularly the education of girls is at the heart of my goals,” she said. My vision is simple: Every girl child in Malawi is given a chance to access quality education.”
You can support the Keeping Girls In School campaign on our JustGiving page.
Educate a girl and her family’s life changes for the better too
Calicioius Ganuel (18) had planned to go to secondary school four years ago when she completed her primary education, but in November 2019, she gave birth to a baby boy Colings, putting an end to her dreams of becoming a nurse.
“My education was finished,” she told MIF during our recent evaluation visit. Or so she thought, because she is now in her second year at Kankao Community Day Secondary school in Balaka district, in eastern Malawi thanks to a MIF scholarship.
Calicious lives with her seven siblings and her mother in a small house in Chimpakati village, a six kilometre walk from her school.
Her early marriage ended soon after the baby’s birth and she returned home to live with her mother and siblings. Her child’s father has no contact with his son.
Her mother, Yasinta (47) grows maize and cotton on the small plot of land adjoining their compound, and she also earns cash by working on other people’s fields. It is very common in Malawi for relatives who live in the cities to keep gardens at their “home village” which they pay local people to cultivate.
Yasinta earns on average MW 4,000 (£3.50) for four days work clearing a piece of land for planting. Based on the school fees for 2023-24, Yasinta would have to work at least 40 days to earn enough to pay for Calicious’ education.
Calicious had no hope of getting her secondary education until Felix, her village’s community agent for our in-country partner WOLREC, approached her mother to tell her about the MIF scholarship scheme.
Yasinta is very happy that her daughter can now go to school. “I don’t have to worry about the fees or uniforms, I can think about my other children, she told us.”
Malawi’s First Lady joins forces with the McConnell International Foundation to support girls’ education
Lord Jack McConnell, founder and chair of the McConnell International Foundation, met with Malawi’s First Lady H.E. Madame Monika Chakwera to discuss education for vulnerable girls at a summit in State House during his recent visit to Malawi.
The meeting focused on the many challenges facing girls in rural Malawi, in particular early marriages. Malawi has one of the highest rates of early marriage and teenage pregnancy in the world, with about half of girls marrying before the age of 18, according to government records.
Lord McConnell said that MIF wants to make sure that their scholarship scheme not only provides girls with their schools fees, uniforms and learning materials, but also mentoring support. “We want to help the girls get through these challenging years, to emerge stronger and hopefully move on to further education, and a good job,” he added.
Watch Luntha TV’s report here.
Work with us to keep girls in school across Malawi.
For only £10 a month, you can will support a girl complete her secondary education, so changing her future for the better. Your generous donation will pay for a girl’s school fees, her uniform and other essentials, including mentoring classes.
The McConnell International Foundation will match your donation, so doubling the number of scholars we can support.
And MIF can reclaim Gift Aid from the tax you pay for the current year, which will increase the value of your generous support by 25%.
If you prefer you can make a one-off donation. However you choose to support us, we can guarantee that every pound we receive is spent on keeping girls in school.
Email us at mcconnellintfoundation@gmail.com or donate through our JustGiving page.