Rihanna teaches math on educational trip to Malawi

Rihanna taught a classroom of Malawian children a math lesson on a visit to the impoverished African nation.

The Barbadian singer traveled to the country in January (17) with her anti-poverty organization, the Clara Lionel Foundation, to learn about the difficulties facing school children and educators involved in Malawi's schools system.

Rihanna, 29, and her charity partnered with the Global Partnership for Education on the trip, and the organization have released a short documentary chronicling her time in Malawi's Muzu primary school.

The film, posted on YouTube, shows her helping kids with musical math lessons in which they sing to learn sums.

"I love that they learn in melody," Rihanna said. "That's like my favorite thing because kids, they adopt melody really, really quickly. And so if you can use that as a learning tool, I think that's the most brilliant, brilliant thing."

She was told by local educators that poverty was a major problem for their pupils, as many were forced to drop out of school to help provide for their families.

"It's such a pity they have to drop out because they are so smart and everybody is learning together and at the same pace it seems," she said in response. "It's sad that has to end for some of them because they could probably do so much if they had the resources to continue and complete."

Rihanna was joined on the trip by former Australian Prime Minister and Global Partnership for Education boardmember Julia Gillard.

Her organization hopes to raise $3.1 billion to provide more than 870 million children in 89 countries with a full education.