Running a school involves a lot of administration. In rural Africa this means headteachers and teachers often have to travel to district offices, sometimes for the whole day. We estimate that over 25% of teacher and headteacher time is wasted on these journeys.
With Solar Connect teachers and headteachers can complete essential administration without leaving school. That means they can spend more time teaching, and children spend more time learning. There are also great benefits for Link School partnerships, community development and environmental sustainability.
Training in Mulanje
Kate Armstrong from Link Scotland joined Philip Ankunda from Link Uganda and the Link Malawi team to train over 30 teachers and Primary Education Advisors (PEAs) from zones across Mulanje. They explored the importance of solar power for combating climate change and bringing electricity to rural areas, learned to use and maintain the solar equipment, and practised basic IT skills on the netbook computers which run on solar power.
For some teachers this was the first time they had used a computer, but in just a few days everyone could create and save documents, access information on the internet and send email. "First we had cell-phones, now we have computers to send messages and get feedback... and learners will benefit from these facilities.” Blessings Mugwa, Assistant Coordinator of Thuchila Zone
The Impact
Solar Connect brings ICT lessons to life with practical experience and provides access to new training and learning resources online, improving the quality of teaching and learning in rural schools. Email improves communication between schools and education officials in each zone, as well as with Link Schools in Scotland. Using email reduces the need to travel so teachers spend more time in class. In schools where the ratio of pupils to teachers is as high as 180:1 this makes a big difference to education.
“This training is an eye-opener. It is going to help us a lot in trying to communicate with our offices, partners in the zone and abroad... It will help us to do reports for school planning and with ongoing communication with District Education Offices and the Link offices.”
Primary Education Advisor Darlington Nyambalo
Schools and communities
Rural sub-Saharan African communities are vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Solar Connect empowers community members to access new technology using a sustainable energy source and raise awareness of climate change and sustainability in the community.
School development is most successful when the whole community is involved. We support local communities to manage the project, raise funds for ongoing costs and ensure that all pupils can benefit.
Following the training Kate and the Mulanje team visited some primary schools which will benefit from Solar Connect at their local TDCs. Many teachers, school managers and community members looked forward to cooperating to make Solar Connect a success in their zone. Mr Chipwera, a School Management Committee member in Maveya zone, said “If we can work together all the time we will do well.”
Solar Connect in the future
