Providing Electricity For Public Schools

Yesterday, we published a story under the headline -“63% public schools have no electricity -US Ambassador.”

According to the story, the United States of America (USA) Ambassador to Ghana, Robert Jackson, while inspecting the installation of a 3.1kwp solar power plant at the Ashaiman Tsui-Bleo Cluster of Schools, observed that 63 per cent of public schools in Ghana have no electricity.

According to Robert Jackson, the 63 percent statistics was the result of a thorough survey conducted by credible organizations and supported by the US in Ghana, adding “These are schools that are not connected to the national grid.”

To Robert Jackson, there was the need for Ghana to explore solar energy opportunities and invest in it, especially in the educational institutions, to facilitate and enhance teaching and learning. He, therefore, suggested to the government to aggressively hang on to the Millennium Challenge Compact for sustainable energy to enable her meet the pressing demand.

The Chronicle couldn't agree more with the ambassador because energy has become a very critical commodity in the country and the only way the government can address it is to invite the private sector to assist in that direction.

However, the about 63 percent of public schools in Ghana without electricity raises a lot of serious concerns, which should become a source of worry to all Ghanaians.

The paper, nonetheless believes that if the government could create the enabling environment for the private sector to enter into renewable energy generation to augment the hydro power already in supply, the better it would be for Ghana.

If enough energy is generated, government could extend electricity to the various public schools to enable Ghana, as a nation to address the long standing problem facing our public schools.

On the other hand, government could get the Ghana Education Service (GES) to liaise with the Ministries of Environment, Science and Technology, Energy and Power to come out with renewable energy models, such as biogas, wind or solar for the various public schools to enable them generate electricity that can take care of their needs.

The government could, alternatively, engage the private sector by encouraging them to go into the generation of other renewable energy sources to help address the problem in its entirety.

Since it is the official goal of the Ministry of Energy to have 10% of Ghana's energy mix generated from renewable sources by 2015, or at the very least by 2020, we should focus on that to achieve our energy needs.

In November 2011, Parliament passed the Renewable Energy Bill, which specified the use of renewable energy such as wind, solar and landfill gas to energy. This should infuse a new breath of life into Ghana quest to meeting its 10 percent renewable goal target by 2020.