RIZAL, Philippines — Barangay Laiban in Tanay, Rizal is just 30 minutes away from the town’s main road but the settlement of around 700 people has been left behind not only in electrification but also in education.
Students in the village rely on gasoline lamps so they could study and do their homework come nightfall. Before the pandemic shuttered schools, educators like Maria Cristina San Pablo used chalkboards and Manila paper, while thousands of teachers across the archipelago utilized televisions and laptops inside classrooms.
The situation puts learners in an even more disadvantaged position as the world becomes increasingly digital.
The Department of Education announced in late January that it has entered a deal for more than 1,000 public schools to have annual access to applications under the Adobe Creative Cloud.
“We are now in the creative development era. Anyone can be a content creator due to the simplification and adaptability of existing mobile devices where learning and design can blend as one,” Education Undersecretary Alain del Pascua said in the department announcement.
Anyone, that is, except for people in places like Laiban that do not have access to power or mobile coverage to go online.
According to San Pablo, students of Laiban Integrated School (LIS) performed poorly in the recent National Achievement Tests, which gauges the academic levels of Filipino students.
One of the reasons for the students’ academic performance was the “[lack of] access to electricity and access to technology,” she said.
The lack of access to electricity and technology also made it difficult for students to pursue college educations or find jobs.
“A graduate of our school who took a college entrance exam told us they struggled in the test because they could not answer simple questions about the parts of a computer. It broke our heart hearing the struggles of our students,” San Pablo said.
Powering a school
In the Philippines, 1,635 primary and secondary schools have yet to be connected to power grids, according to the Department of Education. The agency has a solar and electrification program and is aiming to complete solar panel installation and electrical system updates in schools in disadvantaged areas by 2023.
Believing that electricity access can play an important role in improving learning outcomes, a group of young individuals came together to energize off-grid schools through the use of clean energy.
They launched Project Araw-Aral, which aims to build solar-powered co-studying spaces in unelectrified communities in the country, starting with Barangay Laiban.
Jemar Maldia, an electrical engineer and the lead of Project Araw-Aral, knew the difficulty of growing up in an unelectrified household so he wanted to help students who have no access to electricity.
“Everyone deserves to have access to quality education. It is challenging if students do not have access to electricity, especially in this information age where almost everything …….