Esthery Kunkwenzu was less impressed by Scotland’s weather than she was with its social dancing culture. She took part in every dance at her first ceilidh, but the contrast between Scotland’s climate and the blue skies of her native Malawi was succinctly articulated: “I think there is no daytime in Scotland,” she said.

She was far more impressed by what she learned about primary education during her six-week stay here as a guest of Strathclyde University - a link which, unusually, is being partially funded by some of the Strathclyde lecturers themselves.

Esthery is one of six lecturers from Chancellor College in Malawi who came to Scotland to develop a BEd course for primary teacher trainers in her homeland as part of the Malawi Millennium Project, a five-year partnership between Strathclyde and the University of Malawi.

As well as educating lecturers in primary education so that Malawi can start to meet its pledge to provide free primary education for all, the project has built and equipped a health centre in conjunction with Bell College in Hamilton, funded scholarships for students in Malawi and restocked libraries.

Programmes have been established to help maintain safe water supplies. The visit to Scotland was funded by Strathclyde’s Millennium Fund, which paid for the group’s travel, accommodation and expenses. The university waived all fees.

Professor Jim Love, dean of Strathclyde Business School, said that university staff had also “dug deep” to support the Millennium Project, and he is urging them to dig deeper. He said: “Around 5 per cent of staff currently make a monthly donation to the project, which raises pound;25,000 annually. We are looking for more people to make a donation and asking those who are already giving to see if they can afford a little more.”

During their time in Scotland, the group attended classes at the university’s Jordanhill campus and visited schools in Glasgow and South Lanarkshire.

Dixie Maluwa Banda, the co-ordinator of the programme in Malawi, said the course had been intense and had given the group, all of whom are secondary trained, a good grounding in issues relating to primary education.

He said: “We have had the chance to reflect on and analyse the Scottish 5-14 curriculum and relate it to our own curriculum in Malawi. Some of the things we have really liked about 5-14 are the guiding principles of continuity, progression and balance. We learned quite a lot by going into schools and seeing how teachers are putting these principles into practice.”

Esthery Kunkwenzu was “fascinated” by the flexibility that classroom teachers had to plan the time they spend on each area of the curriculum and allocate work to pupils. “Back home a student would do some work and then maybe lay back and be idle, waiting for the next assigned task.”

Other aspects of the Scottish system that impressed the visitors were what they saw as the crucial role of the school placement in the course and the extent of parental and community involvement.

The delivery of special needs education made a big impact on Elizabeth Kamchedzera.“I was impressed by the way in which children with special needs are included in the current curriculum and the way that differentiation means these kids are able to work at their own range of tasks.”

At a general level, Foster Kholowa appreciated being involved in the course planning right from the start and having the opportunity to negotiate the content.

The Malawi six left their mark at Strathclyde.“They are the best students I have ever worked with in terms of their commitment to work,” said Anne Hughes, the head of the primary education department at the university. “It has been an intensive six weeks and they have worked really hard, day and night.”

In future there will be an ongoing exchange of staff between Strathclyde and Chancellor College to support the development of the primary course. Esthery may yet get a chance to strut her stuff at a ceilidh far from the Scottish gloom, in “the reflected light of bright haze” - the literal translation of Malawi.