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MEERUT: A five-metre-wide lane separated 92-year-old Salima Khan from the world of education for decades. Then one day she decided to walk across.
“Every day, I would wake up to the joyful screams of students entering the government primary school in front of my house in Chawli village, Bulandshahr, yet I never stepped inside though I kept burning with the desire to study all along,” she said Tuesday, two days after she took an exam whose results will declare her “literate”.
“What is the harm in learning?” she asked, little children crowding around her who are now used to the sight of the old woman tottering into class, sitting with them, breaking into a toothless grin at their pranks. Some of them are her great grandkids.
Salima has completed six months of education and is able to read and write. Her video, counting from one to 100, is making waves on social media. Of course, she needs a family member to take her to school and bring her back. But that’s a small thing. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, “I can sign my name. That’s important. Earlier, my grandkids used to trick me into giving them extra money as I couldn’t count currency notes. Those days are gone.”
About the literacy test that she took on Sunday under the central government’s Saakshar Bharat Abhiyan for non-literates of 15 years and above — she was the centre of attraction in the exam hall — she said she’s not worried. “I’ve done well”.
Headmistress of the primary school, Dr Pratibha Sharma, said, “Salima came to us around eight months ago and requested that she be allowed to sit in the classroom. It’s a difficult task to educate such an elderly person, so we were a bit hesitant initially. However, her passion to study in the autumn of her life made us change our mind. We didn’t have the heart to refuse her.”
As if that was what many others like her were waiting for, an incredible change came in the village after that. Sharma added, “Seeing Salima’s zeal, 25 women from the village, including two of her daughters-in-law, came forward to join classes. Now, we have started separate sessions for them.”
Salima’s grand daughter-in-law Firdaus, who accompanies her to school every day, said, “Such dedication at her age is truly inspiring. She’s frail and needs assistance while walking but that doesn’t stop her from getting up in the morning to get ready for school. Just watching her go about it fills us with such hope.”
Salima is matter-of-fact about it. “I remember my first day when the headmistress gave me a book. My hands were shaking. I didn’t know how to hold a pen. Although I was nervous, my happiness knew no bounds. I was married at the age of 14 and there were no schools in our village at the time. Then I became a mother and life took its course, but better late than never.”
“Every day, I would wake up to the joyful screams of students entering the government primary school in front of my house in Chawli village, Bulandshahr, yet I never stepped inside though I kept burning with the desire to study all along,” she said Tuesday, two days after she took an exam whose results will declare her “literate”.
“What is the harm in learning?” she asked, little children crowding around her who are now used to the sight of the old woman tottering into class, sitting with them, breaking into a toothless grin at their pranks. Some of them are her great grandkids.
Salima has completed six months of education and is able to read and write. Her video, counting from one to 100, is making waves on social media. Of course, she needs a family member to take her to school and bring her back. But that’s a small thing. “It doesn’t matter,” she said, “I can sign my name. That’s important. Earlier, my grandkids used to trick me into giving them extra money as I couldn’t count currency notes. Those days are gone.”
About the literacy test that she took on Sunday under the central government’s Saakshar Bharat Abhiyan for non-literates of 15 years and above — she was the centre of attraction in the exam hall — she said she’s not worried. “I’ve done well”.
Headmistress of the primary school, Dr Pratibha Sharma, said, “Salima came to us around eight months ago and requested that she be allowed to sit in the classroom. It’s a difficult task to educate such an elderly person, so we were a bit hesitant initially. However, her passion to study in the autumn of her life made us change our mind. We didn’t have the heart to refuse her.”
As if that was what many others like her were waiting for, an incredible change came in the village after that. Sharma added, “Seeing Salima’s zeal, 25 women from the village, including two of her daughters-in-law, came forward to join classes. Now, we have started separate sessions for them.”
Salima’s grand daughter-in-law Firdaus, who accompanies her to school every day, said, “Such dedication at her age is truly inspiring. She’s frail and needs assistance while walking but that doesn’t stop her from getting up in the morning to get ready for school. Just watching her go about it fills us with such hope.”
Salima is matter-of-fact about it. “I remember my first day when the headmistress gave me a book. My hands were shaking. I didn’t know how to hold a pen. Although I was nervous, my happiness knew no bounds. I was married at the age of 14 and there were no schools in our village at the time. Then I became a mother and life took its course, but better late than never.”
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