January 14, 2002	Monday	Shawwal 29, 1422

MBABANE (Swaziland): Not in her wildest dreams had head teacher Busi Lukhele imagined that the dark corridors of her rundown and shunned primary school in the remote Swazi village of Mphaphathi would one day be brought alive by state-of-the art solar panels.

Tiny Mphaphathi, with a population of 2,500, lies along the Great Usuthu River in Swaziland’s central Manzini region. It boasts of little more than a small grocery shop, a community-managed vegetable garden and, of course, Lukhele’s school.

Cut off from grid electricity, the village used to be engulfed in darkness after sunset. Suddenly it has been transformed - as though someone has waved a magic wand over Mphaphathi, say residents. These days, you can hear the sound of music from the school. Its students and teachers no longer have to read in dim candlelit rooms. Now electric bulbs powered by solar energy have brightened the nights in Mphaphathi.

The solar panels, installed in the school in 1999, generate enough power to meet all its lighting needs and to operate a television set, an overhead projector, a radio and a water pump. This is a far cry from Mphaphathi’s dark era, when qualified teachers would shun the school because it could not offer basic living and work facilities.

“One qualified teacher who was posted here packed her bags and left after five days,” recalls Lukhele, who has been with the Mphaphathi Community School since 1980.

Then in July 1998, the Swaziland National Commission for the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization selected Mphaphathi for a $30,000 grant to turn it into a model “Solar Village.”

The village was selected for two reasons: it was not expected to receive grid-electrification in the foreseeable future, and it had shown a spirit of ‘community development’.

“Now teaching of subjects such as general science, home economics and agriculture is a lot easier. Instead of using only the chalkboard, we either use slides with an overhead projector or show videos or watch television,” says an excited Lukhele.

“A good example is the history of King Shaka Zulu (the Zulu leader who died in the 19th century). We borrowed a video from a shop to use as a teaching aid.” The school now boasts seven fully qualified - and satisfied - teachers. Teachers’ houses now have lighting and there is power for their radios and television sets too.

In tandem, students’ performance has improved. “Improved education has enabled the students to get a 60 per cent pass rate in Grade 7 exams,” says a beaming Lukhele.

Other villagers have also benefited. The school’s solar-powered television set is a major source of entertainment for locals. On weekends, they pack a classroom to watch televised local and international football matches. For this, the villagers are charged a modest fee of one Lilangeni each. The money is used for buying batteries, hiring videos and meeting transport costs.

Every year, parents contribute 15 Emalangeni (100 Lilangeni make up one Emalangeni) to help run the solar project. Jonathan Curren, a project coordinator at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy, says that in selecting the school, they looked for a pro-active community which has a demonstrable track record of community development. Curren would like to see more solar panels installed but, at E 4,000 per panel, the prices are prohibitive. —Gemini News