Education: It's never late to rise above age to accomplish and reward oneself

The eloquence and seemingly, distinguishable tone in her voice gave me courage to work hard in school. She was a teacher who always encouraged those she taught. She was my teacher of English. She made sure we understood and enjoyed what she taught and thanks to her dedication for it built a strong foundation in my education and career.

Many years later I became a teacher of English too to our own children and those of others. I also kept learning more, reading inspirational books on my own to polish my language skills. I enjoyed this lot. It gave me a lot of pleasure to see my students, confidently speak with fluency. Teaching is such a noble profession and I love it.

“Mum, you need to work very hard, for life out there is very hard” this were words from our youngest child. I laughed at the mention of these words from him for these are words spoken by older people to their children (not the other way round) to prompt them to work hard in school. He was reminding me that I was then a student.

The thirst for more knowledge and skills that I always wanted drove me to go back to study. My husband gave me a lot of support to do so. He took care of our children when I was away. This saw me move from one level to another.

“Where have you been? It’s been a long time”. These were words of an old woman friend of mine. I explained to her that I had been away back in school for studies. She looked at me and laughed loud. What did you just say? I repeated what I told her. She laughed and laughed again. This was quite hilarious; it was like I was acting some sort of a comedy and with her watching it.

She could not believe that at my age I was going back to school. According to her, school was meant for young people and not people who already had families of their own. She wanted to know what else I was going to learn that I hadn’t. I took her through a brief learning session to understand that education had no age limit if you wanted it. It’s then that I understood why she had to laugh the way she did.

I had my own challenges among them finding money and time to study; time for my family, my personal work and convincing other women that it was possible to go back to school to pursue my studies for career development. I realized I had to try balancing all. Somehow it worked out for me and there I was, I kept my focus on and with my husbands’ and children support I managed.

Unlike those days, some women today yearn for more education and so many of them have decided to go out in search of education they missed or never got.

Access to quality education and retention in schools for many women in Tanzania especially among those from the rural setup / local community has been hard and is still hard to date. Many women continue to miss out on formal education at a young age due to early marriages and early unwanted pregnancies.

I want to continue encouraging other girls and women that education can be achieved at any age you want. It’s never too late to achieve it. Today am training more on how to use digital tools to improve my work and make a positive change in the lives of girls and women in my community. I want to see more girls training and to be empowered on Digital Technology to help raise their voices and of other women and girls in their community , I say it’s never too late to reward yourself by pursuing your education. I did it, you too can. Do not pay attention to any discouragements ‘Believe in yourself even when they don’t believe you and rise above age or any high huddles on the way to reward yourself a good quality education\"

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