Back to school with Africa's oldest learners

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/05/back-to-school-with-africas-oldest-learners

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Earlier this month Google used its famous doodle to celebrate the anniversary of Kimani Maruge’s first day of school – at the ripe old age of 84.

At the time the Kenyan student was the oldest person to start primary school, earning his place in the Guinness World Records.

VIDEO: Life lessons from Kimani #Maruge - The Oldest Pupil that ever was http://t.co/8ACBZLIgvo pic.twitter.com/vCPMN7bdxI

He first attended class in 2004 with two of his grandchildren, taking advantage of his government’s decision a year earlier to introduce free primary schooling. Maruge’s story provided the inspiration for the film The First Grader, starring Oliver Litondo.

Maruge died in 2009, but senior citizens in Africa have been trooping back to school ever since, and on the other side of the desk there are numerous examples of teachers continuing to impart knowledge well into their golden years.

Here are some of the elderly stars of the continent’s education system, from the 99-year-old graduate to the minister who went back to school.

The world’s oldest primary school pupil

Ninety-year-old Priscilla Sitienei is believed to be the world’s oldest primary school pupil. The Kenyan had previously spent 65 years as a midwife and has helped deliver some of her own classmates, the BBC reported.

Like Maruge, she wanted to read the bible and took advantage of the Kenyan government’s offer of free primary schooling. Like Maruge, she also made prefect.

As far as your brain can work alright, you eyes can see alright, and your ears can hear alright

“Gogo (grandmother) has been a blessing to this school ... she is loved by every pupil, they all want to learn and play with her,” said headmaster David Kinyanjui.

Graduating at 99

Akasease Kofi Boakye Yiadom, 104, was just shy of hitting a century when he graduated from university aged 99.

On his graduation the Ghanian second world war veteran and former teacher said that education had no end: “as far as your brain can work alright, you eyes can see alright, and your ears can hear alright”.

Uganda’s oldest A-Level student

Philip Kizito became Uganda’s oldest A-level student when, aged 75, he enrolled at the Universal School of Adult Literacy in Masaka, a town in central Uganda near the western shores of Lake Victoria.

He was reported to have taken time of from managing a small business to study economics, entrepreneurship, Christian religious education and Luganda, one of the main languages spoken in Uganda.

Kizito wanted to complete his A-level and join a university for a degree in microfinance management but he was reported to have failed his exams back in 2011. It is unclear whether he has plans to try again.

An academic at 80

Eighty-year-old Pa Amodu Alimi graduated with a sociology degree from the Lagos State University in 2012, having enrolled eight years earlier

The Nigerian father of seven went back to study to realise his dream of becoming an academic, something he was unable to do earlier in life.

Women should know that age is just a number. Being educated opens someone’s mind

“When I retired [from working as a clerk at Lagos University Teaching Hospital] in 1992, I didn’t want to be an old man who would stay indoors and wait for three basic meals from his children. So, I saw going back to school as an opportunity, which I lost while working as a civil servant, ” he told Nigerian media on his graduation day.

“I was determined to bear with any negative and positive experiences my going back to school could bring at my age,” he added.

Alimi also said he was thankful for God for getting him through and said that one of his main challenges had been waking up early to catch a bus to school.

The minister who went back to school

Tsungirirai Hungwe-Chimbunde was 72 when she graduated with a degree in reproductive health and family sciences from the Women’s University in Africa.

She had already served as the deputy minister for women’s affairs during 1990s, but said that during her youth women had been excluded from education.

“I only enrolled for my university degree at 60. I could not do it at a tender age. Having acquired my diploma in nursing, the traditional profession for a black woman person, I got married and had three children,” she told the Zimbabwean.

“Women should know that age is just a number. Being educated opens someone’s mind. One is able to think outside the box, get a confidence boost and earn respect. Im now able to express myself much better and understand issues and interpret them better. I wish I had such qualifications during my time as minister, I always look back and say I could have done better,” she added.

When I’m in class I forget about my knee and all the pains in my body

South Africa’s oldest teacher

Nontisikelelo Qwelane is 94, she teaches at the Metropolitan International College White River in Mpumalanga, in the north-east of South Africa, the country’s oldest teacher.

She was born in the Eastern Cape in 1920. Her education started at a missionary school aged nine where she promptly falling in love with learning. She became a teacher in 1940 and has picked up numerous qualifications through her career.

Her two daughters, now nearing their 70s, and her older sister also plumped for teaching careers. She told the Media Club of South Africa that she never gets tired during class: “When I’m in class I forget about my knee and all the pains in my body. It’s because I didn’t do things that my mother told me not to”.

In 2013 South African president Jacob Zuma awarded her the Order of the Baobab for her outstanding contribution to schooling, an award given to South African citizens of exemplary service.

A version of this article first appeared on Mail & Guardian Africa