Nestle supports Calvary Presby School

Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare

THE pupils of the Calvary Presbyterian School at Chorkor in the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) will start pairing five pupils to a computer instead of their initial 12 pupils to a computer following the presentation of fifteen (15) reconditioned computers to the school by Nestle’ Ghana Limited.
The school has a pupil population of about six hundred (600) and has since been relying on six computers to serve the twelve classes, both primary A and B .
As a result, upper primary (primary six to four) went to the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) center twice a week while those of lower primary (primary three downwards) went there once in a week, according to Kotey Caleb, the school’s ICT teacher.
Three of their initial six computers, Mr Caleb said, were a donation to the school by Plan Ghana, while the remaining three came from the school’s Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA).
But with the additional fifteen computers from Nestle’ Ghana, the ICT teacher was optimistic “it would help reduce the tedious and hectic nature of my job”.
Mr Caleb further called on other corporate bodies operating in the country to emulate the gesture of Nestle Ghana by donating ICT facilites to schools nation-wide, otherwise, he added, “the nation as a whole would be lacking behind in the near future”.
The headmaster of the school, Mr Marcus Kobla Agbeyone later lamented the poor state of facilities in the school to the Graphic Business.
He said the school which was established about fifty (50) years ago has no Junior High School (JHS), a situation, he said compelled him to go “around lobbying for JHSs for my students after they have completed”.
And these JHSs, he added, are not even in Chorkor, except those at Manprobi and Sempe, two and a half kilometers away from the Chorkor community.
According to him, after its establisment about (50) years ago, the Chorkor Calvary Presbyterian School has since not undergone any major renovation adding that the classrooms are always hot making it unconducive for the students to learn.
Chorkor, Mr Agbeyone stressed, “is not far away from Accra, the capital city, so why should we be treated as a deprived village?”.
He, however, commended Nestle’ Ghana Limited for coming to the aid of the school and promised to ensure that the computers are put to good use.
In an interview with the Graphic Business after the presentation, the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Manager of Nestle’ Ghana Limited, Mrs Cecilia Dei-Anang insisted the gesture is not the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility, but “an investment in the community and the children in particular”.
On the monetary value of the fifteen reconditioned computers, Mrs Dei-Anang stressed “it is not the monetary value that we are interested in. It is the future of these young ones that we are. Some of these pupils will one day work on your pension, so you better groom them properly for the tasks ahead”.
Earlier, Mrs Freda Duplan, the Head of Nestle’ Africa Business Services had said the computers have been installed with child-friendly software and networked for efficiency to the benifit of the children.