SEED Madagascar

BY ALICE GIARDI

SEED is happy to announce the newest element of Programme Sekoly (‘School’ in Malagasy) – Solar power.  SEED have recently begun a six-month Solar Pilot providing solar energy access to two rural schools in Anosy. Through the installation of solar systems and the provision of rechargeable solar batteries at two SEED-built primary schools, the project aims to increase electricity access for rural communities, and improve educational outcomes.

So far, the result exceeded the expectations: all 96 batteries and lamps provided to each school have already been rented. 

Electricity Access and Education in Rural Madagascar

Just one third of the total population of Madagascar (33.7%) has access to electricity, and in rural regions like Anosy where SEED operates, just 10.9% have access.¹ It is all too common for community members to walk long distances to access basic electrical services, whilst the lack of electricity in schools negatively impacts education outcomes and restricts students’ educational performance. Without lighting in the classrooms, the school day is restricted to daylight hours and during winter can be curtailed by an hour due to the earlier sunset. Even during daylight hours, classrooms often have limited natural lighting, making reading, writing, and concentration challenging for students. Extensive research has shown the correlation between classroom lighting and academic achievement, with the provision of LED lighting proven to be the best option for improving learning processes.² Teachers face similar challenges to students; SEED’s needs assessment revealed that teachers in Anosy struggle to mark and prepare schoolwork outside of school hours due to the lack of lighting, particularly during the ‘winter’ months, between June and August. This is compounded by the fact that many teachers are in unpaid voluntary positions, meaning they often need to support their livelihoods during daylight hours, limiting the time they need to focus on lesson planning and marking homework. 

To assess household access to electricity and lighting sources in rural communities of Anosy, SEED conducted field research in two fokontany (villages). The findings revealed that there was a potential market for clean and reusable lighting, with kerosene lamps reported by community members as the most popular light source. Students studying at home are restricted to using dim kerosene lamps, as are teachers needing to prepare lessons and mark students’ work. Burning kerosene is widely known to be harmful for both the users’ health and the environment. Breathing in the fumes is associated with higher chances of cancer and asthma, and accidentally ingesting kerosene fuel is a leading cause of childhood poisonings in low-income countries.³ When burning kerosene, harmful pollutants such as CO2 and black carbon are released, which significantly contribute to climate change.⁴ The lamp’s naked flame is also a risk for wooden houses, sparking fires which rapidly spread and that are all too common in rural communities. Unfortunately for many rural communities, kerosene is often their only source of affordable lighting, few households have torches and small-scale solar systems which are too expensive for the majority of community members, and are often insufficient to reliably meet their needs.  

Electrifying rural schools in southeast Madagascar 

To address these challenges, SEED designed a project in partnership with Jiro-VE, a Madagascar-based social enterprise specialising in solar installation and service provision. The aim of the project adheres to Programme Sekoly’s core values of improving learning environments, whilst providing decentralised energy access to community members otherwise unable to make the first step onto the energy ladder. 

At the end of May, a 1600Wp PV solar system was installed by Jiro-VE at two rural primary schools in the Mahatalaky and Ebakika communes, Anosy. These systems power an onsite light library; a building attached to the school, constructed by SEED, equipped with rentable solar power banks, provided by Jiro-Ve. Each power bank has a single USB port and is accompanied with a connectable LED light, offering a clean and bright alternative to kerosene lamps. Parents of students and teachers at the primary school, as well as to the wider community, can rent the solar battery for 200Ar (£0.04) per day, enabling them to power the light, play the radio, and charge phones or other electrical devices at a time and location convenient to them. Each light library is managed by a franchisee, a local community member interviewed and selected by SEED for the role. The two franchisees have received training on managing the light library from Jiro-VE, and a portion of the income from renting the solar batteries will form the franchisees’ salaries. There has been great uptake in the community so far; only a week after the light libraries opened at each site, all of the power banks and lights have been rented! An added bonus is that 10% of all income generated by the light libraries will now go back to the schools.

Each school will receive two free power banks and LED lamps to be used in the school building. These lights will create a bright environment conducive to teaching and learning during the school day, and provide students with the opportunity to do educational activities after school. Similarly, teachers will be able to plan lessons and mark work in lit classrooms after lessons, improving their work environment. Teachers living onsite can use the lighting in their accommodation and perform these tasks at home. The 10% of light library income given to the school will contribute to school management and be distributed for educational resources and activities. It is expected that improving teachers' living and working conditions with access to power banks and lighting will positively impact morale and increase retention, resulting in decreased absenteeism.

SEED is excited to partner with Jiro-Ve and make a step in a new direction to improve access to quality education and affordable and clean energy in Anosy. Highlighted as a priority by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals number 4 and 7, this innovative project will provide students with an improved learning environment, teachers with better working and living conditions, community members with a clean, affordable energy source, and the franchisees with a sustainable income. The learnings and opportunities from the pilot will inform how SEED scales this project to multiple schools across southeast Madagascar. 

Would you like to know more about SEED’s Education Infrastructure programme? Take a look at our Sekoly page to learn about our latest and upcoming projects! With thanks to Solar United who we have partnered with for this project.

REFERENCES

1 World Bank, (2020). Access to Electricity - Madagascar. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.ACCS.ZSend=2020&locations=MG&start=2020&view=bar

2 Mogas-Recalde, J., Palau, R. (2021). Classroom Lighting and Its Effect on Student Learning and
Performance: Towards Smarter Conditions. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7383-5_1

3 Kumar S, Kavitha TK, Angurana SK, (2019). Kerosene, Camphor, and Naphthalene Poisoning in Children.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6996713/

4 Alicia Oberholzer & Fid Thompson. The Planetary Potential of Banishing Kerosene Lighting – And HowEntrepreneurship Can Help.
https://nextbillion.net/banishingkerosenelightingwithentrepreneurship/#:~:text=The%20use%20of%20kerosene%20lamps,lived%20but%20potent%20greenhouse%20gas