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Madonna is to build 30 new schools in Malawi, the home nation of her two adopted children.

The pop superstar had planned to create a single £10million girls' academy to improve women's rights and education.

But she has scrapped the idea after failing to attract donors and switched to the new secondary schools, which will be open to both girls and boys.

She says she wants to help more children orphaned by AIDS, which has ravaged the southern African country.

Madonna spent a year fundraising among her mega-rich friends and was told by them they preferred to help as many children as possible rather than ploughing the money into a single project.

The 52-year-old singer said: "In a country where only 33 per cent of girls attend secondary school, I realise the plans we had in place for the academy simply would not serve enough children.

"My original vision is now on a much bigger scale. I want to reach thousands, not hundreds of girls. I want to do more and I want to do it better."

Two of Madonna's four children - David, five, and Mercy, four - were adopted from Malawi after their mothers died.

She has already spent £20,000 on new school buildings and a borehole in the villages where they were born.