Kenyan 90-Year-Old Great Grandmother Enrols In Primary School - Oga Buhari You Too Can Still Enrol For WASC

A woman who has served her rural Kenyan village as a midwife for the past 65 years has returned to primary school along with six of her great-great-grandchildren. Priscilla Sitienei, 90, is believed to be the oldest primary school pupil in the world. 

  

She enrolled at Leaders Vision Preparatory School in the Rift Valley village of Ndalat five years ago, with the intention of finally learning to read and write. 

Affectionately known as "Gogo", which means grandmother in the local Kalenjin language, Mrs Sitienei grew up under British colonial masters and never had the chance to go to school. She said she wants to be able to read the Bible, pass on her midwifery skills and write down the herbal remedies she uses in births. 

 She also hopes to inspire those younger than her – including her own classmates, aged between 10 and 14, some of whom she delivered as babies. 

 "Too many older children are not in school. They even have children themselves," she told the BBC. "They tell me they are too old. I tell them, 'Well I am at school and so should you'.

" Mrs Sitienei follows in the footsteps of the late Kimani Maruge, 84, who became the subject of a British-produced film called The First Grader, when he enrolled in a primary school in Eldoret, Kenya, after the government announced the roll-out of free and universal primary education in 2003. 
Mr Maruge and teachers at the school were forced to fight the government to keep his place. In 2005, he was invited to address the United Nations Millennium Development Summit about the importance of free primary education.

Mrs Sitienei also faced opposition when she first tried to enrol at her school, but head teacher David Kinyanjui said she is now a "blessing and a motivator".

 "I'm very proud of her," he said. "She is loved by every pupil, they all want to learn and play with her.

 "She is doing well … considering her age I can say I have seen a big difference in this school since she came." Now a prefect, Mrs Sitienei takes part in Maths, English, PE, dance, drama and singing.

She wears the school's blue uniform and green jumper and shares a dormitory with one of her great-great grandchildren, where she delivers babies at weekends.

She spends break-times telling stories to her classmates under trees near the playing fields to ensure her knowledge of local customs are passed on.

 "I want to say to the children of the world, especially girls, that education will be your wealth, don't look back and run to your father," she told the BBC.

 "With education you can be whatever you want, a doctor, lawyer or a pilot."