55-year-old farmer goes back to school

A Fifty-five-year-old, woman has enrolled in a Junior High School (JHS) in the Central Region to continue her education from where she left off years ago.

Madam Yamoah had to drop out of school at an early stage due to financial challenges and resorted to farming and selling to make ends meet.

During those days, she recounted having experienced an accident that resulted in her losing most of her teeth.

One would probably give up after several setbacks, but Madam Yamoah still harnessed the interest to be literate and finally decided to take the bold step to go back to school.

“I was very interested in school growing up. I attended for a while but at a point, I had no one to help me so I had to drop-out. I entered into farming and selling. During the selling, I had an accident and lost most of my teeth. But I was not discouraged. I was still interested in schooling. So last year I decided to start schooling again. So I went to buy my uniform, my bag, my footwear and every other thing I needed,” she said.

Elderly people enrolling in grades not traditionally for their ages are mostly laughed at or not taken seriously, but that does not seem to discourage the likes of Madam Yamoah.

Elizabeth Yamoah who is in a class with children the age of some of her grandchildren said she was not deterred by the vast age difference between herself and her classmates as it encourages her to push harder to attain excellence.

In an interview with UTV, she explained that growing up, she realized the importance of education and saw that if she had gone to school she would have been in a better situation.

Mrs Yamoah who dreams of becoming an Assembly Member to contribute to developing her community said, she believed having education guaranteed one a job and a better life.

She advised parents to take their children to school because that secures a better future.

“Even if I complete and I do not get a job but get to be an Assemblywoman, I would be glad. I want the people of Ghana to know that it is wrong to be tossing your children about when they come to ask for money for school. Disobedient children who do not want to go to school to desist from those behaviours.”

Her Form Master, Ishmael Baffoe, said when she came to the school to enroll they initially downplayed until they saw her determination and realized her strong will. He added she has shown great improvement since her enrollment.

“When the woman came to the school, we were really surprised looking at her age and her willingness to learn. So at first, we took it as a joke. Her performance in learning has really improved. She tries to read when the children are also reading and when a question is asked she tries to contribute to answering. Whether she gets it right or wrong she just wants to learn and it encourages us. And we use her to advise the children to look at the lady, her age and her eagerness to still come back to school,” he mentioned.

She is married with four children and has about five grandchildren.