Solar power for barrio schools

Manila Standard Today
By Maricel Cruz | Aug. 26, 2014 at 12:01am

Two party-list lawmakers proposed to install solar panels in far-flung public schools in the country to give teachers and students access to computers and raise the standard of learning in the countryside.

A-Teacher party-list Reps. Mariano Piamonte and Julieta Cortuna, in House Bill 4715, said public schools in remote barangays have no electricity but the government can provide them solar panels that could produce 200 watts of electricity to operate computers, printers and other laboratory equipment.

“Because of the absence of electricity in some areas, the students in public schools suffer from educational content gap,” Piamonte said.

Education experts estimate about 8,000 schools across the country have no electricity and many students lacked the motivation to study. Most of the elementary and public high schools were located in remote areas.

The solar panels will include systems components, charge controllers, inverters and batteries. It will be installed in elementary and high school buildings with at least three classrooms.

Cortuna said the 200-watts solar panels will ensure that all public schools, including those in remote areas, will have technology to provide our students with quality education.

He said the panels will guarantee that young people, wherever they area, will get the same degree of quality teaching as other schools in the country.

Jim Ayala, chairman of Stiftung Solarenergie-Solar Energy Foundation, has announced a donation of P4 million worth of solar libraries to 10 schools that have no access to electricity under the Solar Library Program.

He said a solar library, which will light up the teachers’ workplaces, include “solar reading lights,” which students can take home and motivate them to spend more time to study their lessons.

“We have two targets in terms of needs. The first are the people at home, students who cannot study when they get home,” Ayala said in a statement.

He said the program has charging stations for overhead lights, phones and tablets, laptops, lapel mikes, cameras, projectors, DVD players, microphones, batteries and other gadgets.

Ayala said solar libraries were offered to two schools in Rizal, two schools in Negros island, three schools in South Cotabato and three schools in Palawan.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro described solar energy as “God-given,” which was not tapped in the past.

“More than just giving light … what is even more important is the life lesson that God gives us for free and that is solar power,” Luistro said. source