Europe Day: World Wide Fund for nature
May 10, 2020
WWF’s EU Solar Project Improving Education Standards!
When the sun sets across most parts in rural Uganda, where majority of the population has no access to electricity, the school day ends and learning stops. For an entire half day, pupils and teachers must suspend academic activities—reading, homework, tutoring, grading—until the natural light returns in the morning.
For a typical child in rural Uganda, access to education remains the most important means of acquiring the knowledge and skills that are essential for professional advancement and social self-determination. The quality of education these children receive is affected by the availability of electricity.
Rural areas have the least number of people connected to the electrical grid, yet schools and students in these areas must compete for results with their urban counterparts. For those lucky to be on-grid in these rural areas, electricity is often unreliable and expensive, while few alternatives exist.
While the Government of Uganda has committed to improve educational access for all children, limited access to electricity poses the biggest handicap to rural schools.
Solar systems are one of the options to address this challenge. The advantage of this option is that it can act as a catalyst in various areas: from lighting to health, and to learning quality and safety.