Solar power, farming revive Tunisia school as social enterprise

By selling one-third of the surplus back to the national power company, the rural Makthar boarding school could pay back debts to utilities and fund site improvements and extra-curricular activities. Photo: AFP

Most Tunisian schools are cash-strapped and run down, but an innovative project has allowed one to become self-sustaining by generating its own solar power and growing its own food.

Today, the man behind the initiative hopes the success of the rural Makthar boarding school can serve as a model to improve the crumbling public school sector in the small North African nation.