Priest provokes 55-year-old woman to go to school

true

By Betty Angatai

AT 55-years, she can till jump up and down with her classmates during physical education lessons. In Primary One A, she sits in the last row where she shares a desk with her two classmates aged six and seven in a class of 80 pupils. In front of her is a box that contains her books, including a Bible.

Prikeria Gubika of Wakalende village in Mayuge town council decided to go to school despite her old age. She has started P1 at St. Matia Mulumba Primary School in Kyebando, Mayuge. 

Gubika started schooling last week following a call by a priest during a Sunday mass in Kyebando parish.

She said the Rev. Fr. Anatoli Balikowa, in one of the sermons, urged Christians irrespective of their age to go to school to learn how to read and write to enable them understand the Bible.

“I was so touched by the priest’s call because I had bought a Bible two years back, carried it to church every Sunday but I could not read it,’’ Gubika said, adding that the call was an eye-opener for her to get an education.

Gubika said she started in P1 because she had never attended school in her life.

She said during her childhood, her parents were against educating girls.

“I regret the 25 years I wasted in marriage. I would have been so far ahead had I known the value of education,” said Gubika, who yearns to become a primary school teacher.

Gubika lost her husband, Musali Gubika, three years ago. They did not have any children. Gubika’s class teacher, Margaret Mpabirungi, said she is good at writing, numbers and physical education but she has difficulties in English, social studies and science.

‘’She actively participates in class, she is social towards her classmates and does her work in time,’’ Mpabirungi said, adding that Gubika is always eager to know how she performed.