What it takes to run a school on one solar panel

Where the network ends, school usually ends too. We build for those places first: off-grid communities, crisis zones and families on the move. If it works there, it works everywhere.

Running a school on one solar panel comes down to three constraints, and two things every school needs.

No internet

The tutor has to live on the device. Liber Edge is designed to run on the laptop itself, so every lesson, every course and the tutor work fully offline. Open courses from Source are meant to work offline too, once they are on the device.

No power grid

Everything has to run on hardware a small solar panel can charge: low-cost laptops and basic phones. Where there is only a phone, Line is designed to teach literacy and numbers by voice. If you can make a call, you can learn.

Every language

Lessons have to come in the learner’s own language, from first letters to advanced work. A school that works in only one language is not a school for everyone.

A record that travels

Families on the move change camps and cross borders. Passport is designed to keep a child’s learning record on the device and sync it whenever a connection appears, so their progress goes with them.

A school in a crate

Caravan is meant to put it all together: laptops, a solar kit and every course, preloaded and delivered in a crate. A teacher, or an older student, opens a laptop and the first lesson starts the same day.

Where it stands

We are building each of these pieces inside United Education, and each is released only when it is ready. The release ledger shows where they stand. See the Field.