65 year old woman back to school

A 65 year old Irene Wambisa in class

By Lawrence Aluru

A 65 year old woman has embarked on a mission to pursue her education as the devolved government prepares to come into place on March 4.

Irene Wambisa joined Class One at Segere Primary School in Siaya County to learn English, a language mainly used as a form of communication in most offices in the country.

She joined the list of the oldest grannies to go back to school, by going straight to class one, three levels lower than her grandchild who is in class four.

The late Mzee Kimani Ng’ang’a Maruge burst into public limelight when he enrolled for primary education at the age of 84 in 2004.

Wambisa who wants to maximize on free primary education provided by the government, noted that her school going grandchildren usually go home and speak a language she barely understands and her admiration to be like them cannot be over-emphasized.

Wambisa who has decided to sit at the corner of the classroom, keenly follows the reading lesson with joy in her heart that what only started as a dream is finally coming to pass.

“I recall that I dreamt  one night about joining school and it is something I have always wanted to do, when I told my husband, he said I was just joking,”  Wambisa says.

At first when the headmaster Mr Alex Dunga was approached by Wambisa, he did not admit she was normal since he had known her as a parent in the institution.

“I referred her to my deputy and she told him the same thing. I tried to persuade her to enroll in the adult education center in Boro centre but she would not listen to that,” says Dunga.

He says that he also tried to cajole her into coming for afternoon classes when her classmates are at home but she insisted she wanted to learn in a normal class with her younger colleagues.

Dunga adds that he had to send the mother of four away three times but her determination did not wane as she kept going back and bothering him.“I finally gave her a chance on January 20 and admitted her to class one,” he says.

He says that if she proves to be bright enough and able to grasp concepts fairly well, then he will promote her to class two next term and then class three in third term.

Her class teacher Christopher Owuor says she is a brainy and is able to solve problems other pupils cannot solve.

Apart from her grandchildren’s lifestyle, there are several other reasons that motivated the granny to want to know how to read and write.
 

First, she is usually elected chairperson of most groups in Dadra Village, Kochieng’ A Sub-location where she lives because of straightforwardness and her ability to articulate issues.

However, in most of the meetings the groups hold, she says somebody has to be chosen to write and read the resolutions of the groups instead of her, something that does not go down well with her.

“Even in church, I see people read their bibles but I can’t read mine because I don’t know how to,” she adds.

But what climaxed her desire to acquire education was when she visited her first born daughter who lives and works in Nakuru.

She says the lifestyle she saw was so different from the one in the village that one could not stop admiring it.

When she asked people around what it takes to have such a lifestyle, “I was told it is quality education”.

That is when she decided to ask for her daughter about her desire to acquire education and to how to read and write.

She says that the daughter gave her a go-ahead but warned her that it would not be easy.

The school head teacher also said that the first time Wambisa told him about her ambition, he did not believe her and thought she was insane.

He adds that her first days in school wasn’t very easy because she wasn’t comfortable mingling with other pupils who were very curious around her.

Dunga says that due to her age, she is given special treatment and is exempted from manual work and games.