South Korea plans to set up solar schools, equipped with solar panels to power learning equipment based on information and communications technologies, in Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe next year, the Education Ministry said Wednesday.

A solar school is a solar-powered installation at any type of school or educational center that uses a solar energy system as a teaching tool, which is very practical in the African region that is often short of electricity.

Under the solar school project, a classroom is set up in a container that is supplied with an electronic whiteboard, notebooks and other learning aids.

South Korea started the project in 2013 as part of its efforts to share its e-learning development experience in three African countries -- Kenya, Ghana and Ethiopia -- before later widening it to include three other African countries -- Uganda, Rwanda and Mozambique -- earlier this year.

The ministry plans to give e-learning training to a group of educators from the six countries where solar schools are installed in the southeastern city of Daegu from Aug. 17-27.

According to a ministry official, the project has been paying off. He said, "In Ghana, the rate of students missing school at a solar school has fallen 40 percent from those days when there was no such solar school system, with the passing rate of moving up to a higher grade rising to 94 percent from 14 percent." (Yonhap)