Solar panel in classrooms will light up regional education

Savannah Cement Director Donald Mwaura presents golf shoes to Lady Winner Nancy Ndung’u. Nancy was the overall winner with 32 points during Savannah Cement’s Golf Day held at Muthaiga Golf Club. (Photo:File/Standard)

By Standard Reporter

Kampala, Uganda: For Asia Kamukama, innovation means a four-by-four with solar panels strapped to the roof, the boot containing all the equipment needed for a functional ICT classroom. She is Executive Director of the Maendeleo Foundation, an organisation that makes computers available in Uganda’s rural areas that lack electricity and broadband Internet.

While infrastructure in the equatorial region is underdeveloped, plentiful and reliable sunlight is a key advantage. Mobile solar classrooms show the creative use of an abundant resource can overcome disadvantages.

Maendeleo Foundation has reached 37,000 people in East Africa – 80 per cent students, but also teachers and out-of-school groups: youth, women, farmers and local business people. For Kamukama, the solar school is not a stop-gap solution but a complement to the education system and a vital technology for future sustainable development across Africa

. She believes it is now the task of governments to carry on her work. In her opinion tilted “Solar schemes, if subsidised and promoted across Africa, offer affordable power solutions to all income brackets.” One place where innovators and policy makers come together, to make their voices heard and work together for change, is the eLearning Africa Conference. Taking place in Kampala next month (May 28 – 30), the programme, now online, unites developers, researchers, technologists and teachers under a common theme. This year’s edition, “Opening Frontiers to the Future”, will highlight the many ways in which innovations in education, such as the solar classrooms, are helping to realise Africa’s potential.

Keynote speakers including leading entrepreneur Rebecca Enonchong and Bitange Ndemo, senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi and former PS in the Ministry of Information and Communication. They will present expert commentary, success stories and incisive critiques of Africa’s eLearning scene.

Those scheduled to give key insight from influential firms eLearning will be Noah Samara, Chairman and CEO of Yazmi; Jochen Polster, Vice President EMEA, NComputing; Mark East, General Manager Microsoft EMEA and ASIA Education Industry Group. Others are Bright Simons, social entrepreneur and president of pioneering eHealth network mPedigree. The event will enable participants learn hands-on skills for blogging, digital video authorship and entrepreneurship.