For years, schooling at Adarkwa Methodist Primary and KG School near Suhum in Ghana’s Eastern region often depended on the weather.
When the sun became unbearable, lessons stopped. Pupils would rise from their wooden desks and move around in search of shade as scorching rays pierced through holes in the classroom structure. When the rains arrived, classes were sometimes suspended altogether.
Adarkwa is a farming and cocoa-producing community located within the Suhum Municipal District. Situated off the busy Accra-Kumasi highway, the broader Suhum municipality acts as a key peri-urban center that provides essential market access for the rural agricultural settlements
For some pupils, the alternative was squeezing into a small Methodist church building originally meant for Sunday worship.
“We were always moving because of the sun,” one pupil recalled quietly during the commissioning of a newly completed six-unit classroom block funded by Nestlé Ghana Limited and its partner ECOM Ghana. “Sometimes when the rain started, we had to stop learning.”
Another pupil said many of them had only seen computers in textbooks.
“Our teachers use phones and pictures to teach us ICT because we don’t have computers,” the pupil explained. “I have never touched a mouse before.”
“The Sun Kept Chasing the Children Around”
Those experiences mirror the daily frustrations described by Primary Four teacher Janet Boakye Gyan, who has taught at the school for the past two years.
“There were animal droppings all over, making it difficult even to come out and study,” she told The High Street Journal. “When it was sunny we had to cope, and when it rained it became worse.”
According to her, the deteriorating structure forced teachers to constantly improvise learning arrangements.
“The sun kept chasing the children around,” she said. “Sometimes you are teaching and suddenly the whole class has to stand up and move because the heat becomes unbearable.”
The school’s Primary Six pupils had long occupied a cramped church building because there was no proper classroom space available.
“Even the chairs there were not conducive for learning,” she added.
Teachers also struggled to deliver Information and Communication Technology lessons without electricity or computers.
“We teach ICT using books, pictures and sometimes our phones,” Madam Janet explained. “The children haven’t even seen a real computer mouse before.”
Nestlé and ECOM Step In
That reality has now changed.
Nestlé Ghana and ECOM Ghana have commissioned a new six-unit classroom block complete with offices, a storeroom and toilet facilities, alongside the donation of books and sports equipment to the school.
For many in Adarkwa, the project represents more than infrastructure. It is viewed as a turning point for a cocoa-growing community that had struggled for years with inadequate learning conditions.
Managing Director of Nestlé Ghana, Salomé Azevedo, described classrooms as spaces where “young minds are shaped, confidence is built and dreams are nurtured.”
“Every child has the right to learn in an environment that is clean, safe, quiet and well organised,” she said during the commissioning ceremony.
Part of a Bigger Education Drive
The project forms part of Nestlé’s broader investment in education within cocoa-growing communities across Ghana.
According to Azevedo, the company commissioned four schools in the Ashanti Region earlier this year and is simultaneously completing additional school projects in the Eastern and Central regions in partnership with ECOM Ghana.
“This is Nestlé for Good in action,” she said.
The initiative reflects growing private-sector involvement in educational infrastructure development within underserved farming communities where access to quality learning spaces remains limited.
Headmaster Recalls Years of Hardship
For Headmaster, Emmanuel Padi, the transformation goes beyond comfort.
“The people of Adarkwa have suffered a lot,” he said. “Whenever it rained we had to close the learners, and during sunny days the classrooms became too hot for teaching and learning.”
The deteriorating conditions had reached a point where some parents began transferring their children to schools in nearby communities, including Suhum.
Mr. Padi himself conducted administrative work under a tree because the school lacked office space.
“All these challenges have now been solved,” he said.
Community leaders believe the new facility could help improve enrolment, academic performance and teacher retention in the area.
The Challenges That Still Remain
Even amid the celebration, significant gaps remain.
The school still lacks a computer laboratory, library, canteen and teachers’ bungalow. Electricity access also remains a challenge, limiting efforts to expand digital learning.
The Methodist Church had begun construction of a teachers’ bungalow, but work stalled at roofing level due to funding constraints.
School authorities say addressing those remaining needs will be critical to sustaining improvements in teaching and learning outcomes.
A New Beginning for Adarkwa’s Children
For now, however, the children of Adarkwa are holding on to something they had lacked for years: stability.
No more running from sunlight during lessons.
No more abandoned classes when rain clouds gather overhead.
And perhaps, for the first time, a classroom environment where learning can happen without interruption.
