Energy Poverty & Education

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The straining effects of energy poverty on education:

  • .Without electrification daily duties such as cooking or washing are very time-consuming. Therefor families depend on the help of their kids e.g. for collecting fuel wood in the already depleted forests. Sometimes, these tasks take up so much time that the children miss some classes or can´t go to school at all. According to the Integrated Household Survey of 2016/7 fourteen percent of the population aged 15 and over have never attended school.[9]
  • It is hard to attract high qualified teachers to rural areas due to sub-standard living conditions, including lack of security and entertainment options.

As the clock ticks closer to 5 o’clock the sun already starts to set in most parts of Malawi. For the next 12 hours, especially rural areas turn into dark, quiet places. Without electrification those who want to use the evening hours efficiently either depend on lightning methods that do harm to the torches) or they have no light at all. However, no light means that neither students can do their homework or study for the next day nor teachers can prepare classes after coming home from school.