This 73-Year-Old Mizo Man Has Gone Back to School to Learn English

A septuagenarian villager from the Northeast, who works as a humble chowkidar in a church, is living proof that it is never too late to learn. This 73-year-old Mizo man has gone back to school to finish his education at a ripe old age.

April 3, 2018, was truly the dawn of a new day in the life of 73-year-old Lalringthara of Mizoram as he packed a school bag full of text books and donned a new uniform to head to the only middle school in his village. This Grade 5 student, the oldest of all teaching and non-teaching staff in his school, is fulfilling a childhood dream to finish his schooling that was interrupted due to lack of family support at an early age. Today, he sits in a classroom with children who are at least 60 years younger than him.

Born in 1945 in Khuangleng village, Lalringthara’s father died when he was just two years old. His mother remarried and entrusted his upkeep to a distant relative who discontinued the boy’s schooling after Grade 2 and made him work in a rice field instead. After moving from one place to another, Lalringthara finally settled in New Hruaikawn village in 1995.

This septuagenarian’s schooling is being sponsored by the government’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and he is attending classes at the Upper Middle School in New Hruaikawn village in Champhai district located on the Mizoram-Myanmar border. Lalringthara also works as a chowkidar in the local Presbyterian church in the same village to earn his living.

Lalringthara has no problem reading and writing in the local Mizo language. He has read the Old Testament 14 times and the New Testament 16 times. His main motive in going to school is to learn English so that he can write an application in English and also read the newspaper and watch news on the English channels on television.

(Featured image source: Eclectic NorthEast)