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Aged Jenin woman goes back to school in 70s
Source: Xinhua |
June 4, 2011, Saturday
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Online Edition
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ARIFA Malaysha, a 70-year-old school girl, does not care at all to sit on bench together with her classmates of kids who are not older than seven years old in a school in the village of Jaba's in northern West Bank.
Wrinkles of decades on Malaysha's face and hands never stopped her ambitions to learn reading and writing from the very beginning since she gave up school to keep her family in bread.
"I was unlucky to lose my education when I was young due to the hard living conditions. I never mind to go to school, even after I got very old, I wanted to compensate myself and get my education again," said Malaysha in her first grade.
Before she officially joined her class, Malaysha used to go for literacy lessons in a school in her village near Jenin in northern West Bank for three years. "I was so glad when the literacy school was inaugurated in our village for women to learn how to read and write. I couldn't believe that one day I would be able to read and write like other educated people," said Malaysha.
Sounds so proud of herself, she said "I managed to learn the Arabic letter and how to read and write within two months only," Malaysha said, adding that she also knows now some basic mathematics and geometry.
The Palestinian Statistic Bureau Center said in a recent report that the rate of illiteracy in the Palestinian territories had dropped from 13.9 percent in 1997 to 5.4 percent in 2009.
After the literacy school, a program to educate illiterate women in the village of Jaba', Malaysha decided to join a regular school and she never felt embarrassed to sit down together with seven-year-old girls who are as young as her grandchildren, in order to continue her education. "I was the first woman in the village who had the initiative to register in an official school because I was always thirsty to education."
The schoolgirl, living in a small poor house on top of a Debroon mountain in the village, depends on making pottery jars to support her life.
"If I went to school when I was young and won a university certificate, my life would not be like that," said Malaysha, while making pottery jars.
Malaysha said age has never been an obstacle for education. "Men, women and children should always keep learning because education improves us for a better life," she said.
In the light of a little lantern, the strong-mind woman keep writing and writing with a pencil, "I just want to learn as quickly as possible," said Malaysha, who dreams to study the Palestinian history to tell the children in the village about it.
Wrinkles of decades on Malaysha's face and hands never stopped her ambitions to learn reading and writing from the very beginning since she gave up school to keep her family in bread.
"I was unlucky to lose my education when I was young due to the hard living conditions. I never mind to go to school, even after I got very old, I wanted to compensate myself and get my education again," said Malaysha in her first grade.
Before she officially joined her class, Malaysha used to go for literacy lessons in a school in her village near Jenin in northern West Bank for three years. "I was so glad when the literacy school was inaugurated in our village for women to learn how to read and write. I couldn't believe that one day I would be able to read and write like other educated people," said Malaysha.
Sounds so proud of herself, she said "I managed to learn the Arabic letter and how to read and write within two months only," Malaysha said, adding that she also knows now some basic mathematics and geometry.
The Palestinian Statistic Bureau Center said in a recent report that the rate of illiteracy in the Palestinian territories had dropped from 13.9 percent in 1997 to 5.4 percent in 2009.
After the literacy school, a program to educate illiterate women in the village of Jaba', Malaysha decided to join a regular school and she never felt embarrassed to sit down together with seven-year-old girls who are as young as her grandchildren, in order to continue her education. "I was the first woman in the village who had the initiative to register in an official school because I was always thirsty to education."
The schoolgirl, living in a small poor house on top of a Debroon mountain in the village, depends on making pottery jars to support her life.
"If I went to school when I was young and won a university certificate, my life would not be like that," said Malaysha, while making pottery jars.
Malaysha said age has never been an obstacle for education. "Men, women and children should always keep learning because education improves us for a better life," she said.
In the light of a little lantern, the strong-mind woman keep writing and writing with a pencil, "I just want to learn as quickly as possible," said Malaysha, who dreams to study the Palestinian history to tell the children in the village about it.
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