Solar energy is helping power a more promising start for school children in Pakistan.
It’s a normal Thursday afternoon in June at GPS Kahi Bazid Khel, a mixed government primary school (GPS) in Kohat, a district in the south of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. Classes are underway and children are in the throes of learning. Lights and fans overhead help to keep classrooms bright and cool as the temperature outside reaches a blistering 45 degrees Celsius.
Two years earlier, the school would have had little choice but to close due to such temperatures. On extremely hot days, conditions were unbearable and even dangerous for school children and their teachers.
“Our conditions here were very harsh. It was very hot out there,” explains Abid Saeed, a teacher at GPS Kahi Bazid Khel. “Only us and the children studying here understand the difficulties we faced.”
In the hot summer months when the school stayed open, Abid would have taken his classes outside under the shade of trees. This affected children’s ability to focus on their studies and led to high numbers of absenteeism.
I did not want to go to school. We would sit outside when we came to school. We were uncomfortable and would sweat a lot." Faryal - Third grade student
Low enrolment and high dropout rates are a problem for many of Pakistan’s government schools. It is especially severe in the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, where rural schools often lack access to key infrastructure, such as electricity.
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Read Full Story: https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/powering-better-education-pakistan
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