Solar reading lights, charging station to be given to 10 remote public schools

By: Dona Z. Pazzibugan - 10 years ago

Education Secretary Armin Luistro. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Out of so many remote public schools without access to electricity, 10 such public schools will soon receive “solar libraries” to literally bring light to their teachers and students.

Education Secretary Br Armin Luistro received Tuesday a donation from the Stiftung Solarenergie Foundation (StS) for a set of solar reading lights and solar charging station for each of the 10 chosen public schools.

Luistro said improving the teaching conditions for teachers would help the students learn better.

“We are mapping now those schools that are really off-grid,” he said during the turnover ceremonies.

The 10 schools that will receive the solar libraries are in the provinces of Rizal, Palawan, South Cotabato, Sarangani, in General Santos City and in Panay island, according to DepEd.

These schools will each receive a solar library consisting of 20 to 500 solar reading lights and a teacher’s solar charging station.

Jim Ayala of the Foundation for Rural Electrification for Economic Development said the students could take home a solar reading light once a week to help them study at home.

“The impact (of the solar library) is that the children are much more motivated to study and they study 45 per cent longer. The children also don’t fight anymore (for light),” he said.