Impact of Energy Poverty on Provision of Quality Education: Evidence from Selected Schools in Urban Zambia

Abstract

This study investigates how energy poverty impacts the provision of quality education in secondary schools across Lusaka and Kitwe districts of Zambia. A mixed-methods approach was employed, drawing a sample of 850 respondents, including students, teachers, head teachers, parents, and education officials. Results reveal that although 75 per cent of households and 95 per cent of schools are connected to the national grid, electricity supply is highly unreliable, with 54 per cent of households receiving only 0-4 hours of power daily and 77.6 per cent experiencing daily load-shedding. Quantitative analysis showed significant associations between energy access and educational outcomes. Limited electricity hours were associated with lower academic performance (χ² = 32.47, p < 0.001), whereas grid connectivity strongly influenced night study practices. Frequent load-shedding significantly disrupted homework completion (χ² = 27.23, p < 0.001), and school-level outages directly impaired lesson continuity (χ² = 18.57, p < 0.001). Crucially, schools with backup energy sources reported higher teacher ratings of education quality. The findings underscore that unreliable and unaffordable electricity critically undermines study time, ICT integration, and curriculum delivery. This study contributes to policy and scholarship by empirically highlighting that in urban Zambian contexts, energy reliability, not just connection, is a fundamental determinant of educational quality, necessitating integrated energy-education strategies to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 4 (Quality Education) and 7 Affordable and Clean Energy).