SVPSS students saying thanks for new library A new classroom in Mitsidi
Welcome to the Home Page
Scotia Education Trust was founded in December 2010. Its mission is to support education as the route out of poverty.
The Trust aims to support education in rural locations close to Blantyre (a large city in southern Malawi), by investing in and managing specific projects with the provision of:-
equipment for lessons
buildings and basic infrastructure for schools
school fees and other costs for sponsorship
At present, we are supporting:-
Mitsidi Community Day Secondary School (CDSS)
We have been building St. Vincent de Paul Secondary School (SVPSS)
Secondary education for students from needy backgrounds. The school fees are paid directly to the schools.
The Trust has minimal operating costs - mainly bank charges. Administration by unpaid volunteers (with professional backgrounds and much experience of working and living in Malawi) means donations go to the cause.
The Trust ensures funds are spent as expected. We work with people long known to us, obtaining quotations, bank statements to show receipt of funds in Malawian Kwacha (sent as GBP), receipts of payments and report of work completed to satisfaction before the final payment. Photographs corroborate the other evidence. The areas of our schools are well known to us after visiting many times.
We usually use local contractors known to us for many years for major building projects as well as local carpenters, welders, electricians and borehole driller. This provides employment and income for Malawians, as well as maintaining their skills. For our sponsorship programme, we are associated with Joshua Orphan and Community Care (UK Registered Charity 1114727) who do the work on the ground in Malawi for us.
Sponsorship, recent projects and earlier reports are on other pages via the menus.
You can learn more about Malawi and you can contact us by scrolling to the bottom of the page where there is an email address.
The Autum 2024 Update for Supporters can be found here.
Nansengwe Primary School which we supported for four years can be seen here.
Chiraweni Primary School which we supported for eight years can be seen here.
Latest News
Some great results in the 2024 National exams at our schools
Form 3 Mitsidi CDSS, all of whom were successful in JCE this year
Junior Certificate (JCE), second year exam. National pass rate ≈71%
Mitsidi CDSS 58 (80%) passed
SVPSS 87 (72%) passed
Sponsored 18 (100%) passed.
Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) fourth year exam
National pass rate ≈55%. <50% for rural schools
Mitsidi CDSS 26 (59%) passed
SVPSS 85 (57%) passed
First classroom block and solar powered borehole work nearly completed for SVPSS
SVPSS----->
Our new school opened in January 2021 with two classrooms, a septic tank, two toilet blocks, hostel for female boarders and a kitchen for preparing food for the boarders. The school accepted students for all four years of Secondary education. With nearly 400 students enrolled at that time but only two classrooms, this was challenging in their first two academic years. The second hostel was completed during 2021 providing separate buildings for males and females. “Brick fences” around the front of the hostels providing secure, private outside space for sitting, studying and drying washing were needed and were costly.
Inside one of the two classrooms at SVPSS
In 2022, a triple classroom was built. Metal desks (wooden ones may be attacked by termites) and metal bunk beds have been made and mattresses purchased.
Three classrooms in the new block were needed because of the high numbers in Form 1. It also meant that students could sit the National written exams on site rather than travel to another location. Work building a laboratory block started in 2023 and was completed in 2024. There are practical exams in Physics, Chemistry, Agriculture and Biology which can account for nearly 50% of the exam marks. In addition, a pass in the pracical side of the exam is needed in order to gain a pass in the subject.
In 2024, a library was built.
Solar power and security lighting has been installed after completion of each building at SVPSS. Problems with batteries and inverters has resulted in a change in contractors and all is working well again at present.
New classroom block at Mitsidi CDSS
MITSIDI CDSS----->
Maintenance of the school buildings is often required and sometimes for the Head Teacher's house and associated outside buildings - the toilet, kitchen and bathroom. Educational items as well as materials for the science practical classes in the laboratory are also needed. Solar power problems have also been resolved.
Termites were an on-going problem in the block containing the library, offices and Form 1 classroom. There have been numerous attempts at treating them as well as removing the queens from the nests. In 2022, a professional pest control unit was employed at considerable expense; it seems to have worked so far. Because the annual intake had been increased from 50 to 100 students, more classroom space was needed. A new two classroom block was completed in January 2020. The teachers are remarkably dedicated, travelling substantial distances to get to the school. There is no public transport out to the Mitsidi area and travel on foot or bike is particularly difficult in the 3 months of the rainy season. There was optimism about improving exam results when four new teachers were posted to the school in 2022.
Newly sponsored students at Joshua Secondary School.
Sponsorship ----->
This academic year (September 2024 - July 2025) we are supporting 79 students in Secondary education. They were all from poor backgrounds. Their parents or guardians have minimal or no Primary education, few have employment, so they can not afford school fees, uniform, shoes, jotters and pens all of which are needed for Secondary School. Fourteen years on, we are seeing the fruits of their education. One from the first cohort of four students was employed for several years as a Radiographer at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre, the largest hospital in Malawi. More recently, he applied for training in Radiotherapy to International Atomic Energy Agency and was successful. Now in Ghana for two years training before returning to Malawi where he will work in a new radiotherapy facility in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi.
We are hopeful that our sponsored students with Secondary education will continue to progress to Higher Education or to gain employment and so be safely out of the poverty trap of their elders.