Brighter Futures

Almost half a million children in Peru attend schools in remote frontier areas, where limited access to safe water, reliable energy, learning materials and internet connectivity can undermine their ability to learn. In the most underserved areas, just 1 in 10 students understand what they read.

Brighter Futures works with schools in Peru’s most remote Andes and Amazon areas to address these challenges by creating more suitable and sustainable learning environments, and strengthening the capacity of teachers, families and local authorities. Through solar energy, safe water systems, innovation classrooms, school gardens and teacher training, the project helps children learn by doing, and works with local and regional authorities to embed the model in public policy.

When schools lack the foundations for learning

In Peru’s frontier areas, schools are at the heart of communities where Amazonian and Andean indigenous peoples, including Awajún, Wampis and Aymara communities, live. These schools play a vital role beyond literacy and numeracy: they are also places where local culture, knowledge and relationships with the environment are strengthened.

However, many frontier schools continue to face significant barriers. Around one quarter lack basic services such as safe water, reliable energy or internet access, while learning outcomes remain particularly challenging in the most remote areas.  Many of these students are not native Spanish speakers, and a lack of teachers and teaching resources that adequately meet their needs means bilingual learning is frequently viewed as a hurdle rather than a strength (National Assessment of Learning Achievement, 2026). This helps explain why, in the most underserved comunities, only 1 in every 10 students understand what they read.

These challenges are shaped by deeper inequalities, including geographic isolation, infrastructure deficiencies, language and cultural barriers, and limited public investment. Without the right conditions and support systems, schools struggle to provide children with the learning opportunities they need.

Responding to these challenges requires more than improving infrastructure alone, and communities can’t simply wait for the structural gaps to close. We address these needs with cost-effective solutions, combining sustainable technologies with teacher development, community participation and collaboration with public institutions to create learning environments that communities can maintain and sustain over time. That way, dignity, opportunity and resilience can become the norm in frontier communities, not the exception.

Schools built to build a future on

Better learning outcomes depend on schools having the right conditions, prepared staff and support systems in place. To address these interconnected challenges, we focus on:

• Creating sustainable learning environments by installing solar energy systems that provide reliable electricity for essential services, including safe water systems and learning technologies, while supporting innovation classrooms and school gardens. This allows students to learn in a safe, comfortable and engaging learning environment.
• Strengthening teachers’ capacity through intensive training sessions and pedagogical support, helping educators develop lessons where students investigate challenges, design solutions and learn by doing through problems connected to their own surroundings.
• Supporting community ownership by working with schools, families and local actors to develop maintenance plans and strengthen school governance so that installed systems can continue benefiting students after the project ends.
• Working with public institutions and local and regional authorities to formalise agreements, strengthen local capacity and develop pathways for the model to be replicated in other frontier schools.

The project’s outcomes span three areas: environmental (solar energy, safe water and productive school gardens), social (teacher development, democratic school governance and family engagement) and institutional (public policy alignment and sustainable financing). Together, these elements build a model that frontier communities can sustain over time.

By the end of phase II, we aim to:

• Support more than 2,800 students and 250 teachers and school leaders across participating schools.
• Reduce student absenteeism by 50% through improved learning conditions and more engaging educational approaches.
• Triple reading comprehension levels in project schools, from 1 in 10 students understanding what they read to 3 in 10.
• Strengthen local and regional authorities’ commitment to maintaining the systems installed in the 16 selected schools.
• Have our Capacity Strengthening Programme, which combines intensive training sessions with ongoing pedagogical support, validated by the Ministry of Education, enabling wider replication of the approach.
• Support the approval and funding of a national Education Strategy for Frontier Areas.
• Set course for the replication of the model in 40 additional frontier schools through approved or in process of approval public investment projects.