63-year-old grandfather ready for KCPE

A 63-year-old man who joined school this year in Kilifi County is among the candidates who will be sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) slated for November 1.

Mzee Samuel Kazungu Kadenge joined Standard Three at Ganze Primary School in July this year as a private candidate so that he could know how to read and write.

The old man said he is well prepared to sit for the national examination despite the challenges he has had coping with the new school curriculum.

“With the few months that I have been in school, I can say I am ready for KCPE, my dream is to proceed to secondary school so that I can qualify to be enrolled in a training college,” he said.

The optimistic Mzee Kazungu said he would like to be a teacher and that the dream can only be achieved upon attaining Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate.

He says education has no limits and that one can learn as long as they live at any age, provided one can read and write.

On why he decided to go back to school at an old age, the emotional Mzee Kazungu said he had been short-changed and denied opportunity to manage or be part of the management of an institution he founded.

He said he was demoralized and even regretted why he even started the learning institution after handing it over to the government.

“I was blocked from sitting on the management committee of the school because I was illiterate, I was demoralized but on the other hand it reminded me the need to be literate,” he said.

The founder of the Kimbule Primary School in Ganze, he said it was heart breaking that he could not be involved in the management of the learning institution, which he started as a nursery school in 2002.

He told the Nation that illiteracy of the residents was the motivating factor behind the idea of setting up a school, that would ensure that every child in the area get an opportunity to learn.

“By then, most learning institutions were far from our village, I also considered the fact that most children were dropping out of school due to distance. I decided to partner with a local church to establish the institution,” he said.

“I was sacked, the management was handed over to young learned people and since then my services were not and have not been of any help to them. I was locked out of my dream child,” he added.

The father of 11 said he did it out of love for his village, but he was shocked that his noble idea turned out to be a thorn in his flesh.

Besides being left out of the school management, he said he could be easily duped and conned by people who he sought help with reading his M-Pesa messages sent to him.

The old man who could barely read in Swahili said he had to learn after he was sacked from Kenya Power Company in 1982, where he was employed as an office messenger.

“After working for a few months, Kenya Power sacked me saying most of the work needed someone who has the ability to read and write in Swahili and English,” he said.

Mr Kazungu resorted to manual labour to make ends meet for his 11 children.

He said besides starting up a school, he also founded a cassava processing project and a goat milk project among others that have been of help to the community.

He said when he broke the news of going back to school to his wife, she protested asking who would be feeding their large family. “I humbly replied God will provide,” he said.

His wife, Esther Samuel, 40, told him she would not withstand the embarrassment of her husband going back to school at an old age. “She finally adjusted to my new life and gave me humble time to learn,” he reveals.

According to him, she had no choice but to let him continue pursuing his dreams.

“I did not want to seem a stumbling block stopping him from pursuing his dreams. It was difficult at first but I had to adjust and accommodate him. Though my neighbours are taking ill about my husband but I mostly ignore their gossips,” she says.

The couple is optimistic that their fortune might change now that Mzee Kazungu decided to pursue his dream and possibly be trained as a teacher.

Two of his children managed to complete their ‘O’ levels, but they are jobless, some are still in high school while others are in primary school.

He said his children did not oppose his decision to go back to school.

Ganze Primary School Head teacher Mr Anderson Kahindi said they were confident that his oldest student will be able to make them proud as he sits for his KCPE.

“As old as he is he wants to get the KCPE Certificate to help him read and write and be able to understand the Bible being a religious man. He also wants to easily operate his phone and to send texts instead of being misled,” he said.

He described him as very outgoing and also as the oldest member of the Ganze Primary School, he offers advice to his classmates who see him as their grandfather.