Yak'ing about Light

Tomorrow's issue of the China Dailly adds to a growing body of evidence on how off-grid lighting can improve the quality of life, especially for children.

Citing results from a recently solar-elecrified Tibetian Yak herders school in the village of Yenge, the article describes how darkness after nightfall contributes to illiteracy:

While Yege's children are the township's first generation who can read, they would effectively become illiterate after dusk.  ... The lack of electricity is a factor in Qinghai's 10.2-percent illiteracy rate - the country's highest after the Tibet autonomous region, according to the 2010 census.

Despite China's prodigious efforts to extend the grid into rural areas, China still has 8.5 million households without electricity. (My guess is much more....)  Nomadic groups, are in particular need.  More than half of these household heads can't read and never attended school.

In contrast, 2/3 of those with receiving solar lighting under a new campaign can read.

According to the village Chief:

"Without power, the school was like a prison," he says. "So parents didn't want to send their kids. They thought it was more important for them to herd yaks than to study. Having electric lights also saves the children's eyesight from the damage caused by straining to read and write by candlelight, he says.