David Smith reports in The Guardian that electronics firm Samsung have built a solar-powered mobile classroom inside a 12-foot shipping container.
It features “an array of gadgets including laptops, a video camera and a 50-inch e-board in place of a blackboard”. The idea is that the classroom will be transported by truck to communities in remote areas of Africa. C
rucially, it will operate where there is no electricity supply.
So, how will all those learning tools be powered? Well, foldaway solar panels will generate the energy required to power the classroom’s equipment for up to nine hours a day – and for one and a half days without any sunlight at all.
Samsung said: “Electricity remains Africa’s largest economic challenge with the level of penetration lower than 25% in most rural areas.
“This lack of power isolates communities, and limits their access to education and information, both of which are key to fast-tracking a nation’s development.”
Could schools in the UK learn a lesson or two from solar-powered schooling in rural Africa?