Lamwo | Over 600 students at Palabek Parents School in Lamwo district are benefiting from a new solar grid designed to improve access to quality education and the safety of the school and surrounding community.
The solar grid, powered by Mysol Solar, was donated to the school as an award for winning the Mysol super village competition in 2023, in which ten villages from across the country competed.
John Otema, the school’s PTA chairman, stated that the school, which began in a tent, now has a new solar-powered classroom, which will help to improve the school’s standard and quality of education.
“I am very happy now that our children will be using light at night to enable them to read their books. We used to buy solar lights of shs15,000 from the market but they did not last for long,” Otema said.
“Some parents could not afford to buy these small solar lighting, and their children had to borrow from colleagues. This has affected their performance but I am hopeful that with this new solar grid connected, the performance will improve,” he added.
Otema further noted that due to the limited electricity connectivity in the area, even the safety of their children were at risk because at night, there will be no lighting that can run 24 hours to ensure that the school premise is bright and safe for the learners.
“I know even the security of the area and the school will improve and parents can now sleep and rest and not be worrying about their children’s safety while at school,” he added.
Francis Ogik, the school’s headteacher, told this publication that one of their dreams had come true with the solar grid connectivity, which had proven difficult for them.
According to Ogik, the school, which opened in 2017, has had a significant impact on the lives of children in the community and surrounding villages, including some from South Sudan.
“This school has greatly helped the community and villages neighbouring it, we even have children coming from South Sudan and from the camp to study here. We have been the best school in the entire Lamwo district in terms of academic performance for the past years,” Otema said.
Though our learners used to learn under the tents, they managed to perform well because we have qualified and committed teachers who love their work,” noted Otema, adding, “Now with this solar grid, I am sure that the performance in the forthcoming exams will be better than the previous ones.”
The prize won in the competition to obtain these solar grid and new classroom blocks was only shs20 million, he revealed, adding that the school had to contribute shs10 million and other in-kind items such as cement.
Margret Ajidiru, a parent of the school, told tndNews that the community school has greatly supported them as parents whose children could not trek 5 km in search of quality education.
“Our children used to suffer during rainy seasons because the nearby government school is very far and even over populated so children could not get quality education but with this community school opening, they are safe,” said Ajidiru.
According to him, many girls dropped out of school due to the long distances and poor quality of education provided at the school. “The teachers do not even care about the welfare of the girl-child but here they are now safe,” he told tndNews.
Philip Robert, the Managing Director Mysol energy company said that their intervention has complemented the solution brought by the government of Uganda and its network to serve the big cities and densely populated areas.
He added that solar grids have come as a complement to provide traditional solutions and environmental friendly lighting solutions with mini grids connections in the rural villages of Uganda.
“We come to complement the government network with our traditional solutions like mini grids in the rural villages of Uganda especially for those who do not have much access to electricity and power supply; they could easily connect with our traditional mini grids,” Philip said.
“The need for energy in Uganda is very high and many people are deprived of electricity and yet they need these services and with our solar solutions, we believe it will provide solutions for the rural villages who need access to solar energy,” he added.
The Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) estimates that as of December 2022, installed electricity capacity in Uganda was 1,402 megawatts (MW) with demand at 843 MW, leaving a surplus of 559 MW.