VOCABULARY

you can't teach an old dog new tricks

an idiom that means you cannot learn new things when you are old
modest
limited or small
universal
available or applicable to all people
determined
having made a strong decision
octogenarian
person in their 80's
exemplified
was an example of

YOU CANT TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW

TRICKS IDIOM PROVEN WRONG
Are you ever too old to learn? Some people think so. But Kimani
Maruge disagrees.
Kimani was an 84-year-old when he first entered elementary school.
You see, in Kenya where Kimani lived, elementary school wasnt
universal. Children and their parents had to pay school fees. And these
fees, while they might seem modest to a lot of us today, made school
too expensive for a lot of families in Kenya, including the Maruges.
So when the Kenyan government introduced universal elementary
education in 2003, Kimani sprang into action. He sold his goats,
bought a school uniform, and joined the first grade. And at the
incredible age of 84, he became the oldest person to ever have
enrolled in an elementary school.
He simply wanted to learn to read.
People were outraged that Kimani, an old man, was allowed to enter
elementary school. They felt he was taking a spot that a child should
have. They threw rocks and threatened him as he walked to school in

the morning. But Kimani never let that stop him. He was determined to
keep on learning.
Kimani led a fascinating life. When he was young, he belonged to a
group of Kenyan freedom fighters, battling for their countrys
independence. The right to education was one of the things he fought
for. And in 2005, he spoke at the United Nations about the importance
of free primary schooling, and of giving poor people the opportunity of
education.
Even when he was diagnosed with cancer, he was dedicated to
continuing his education.
He brought in teachers to work with him at home right up until his
death a few months later. Before he died, he stated, even if you dont
see it through to the end, you will still have achieved something.
Kimani didnt start his education as an octogenarian to get a better job
or make more money. For him, the journey of learning more about how
the world worked was the true reward.
Kimani was an inspirational person, who truly exemplified the saying
its never too late. Some people think they are too old to go back to
school or to learn a new language. But people like Kimani Maruge
show us that you can achieve anything if you are willing to work hard
and keep fighting.

The soldier who fought for the right to

go to school in Kenya
Former Mau Mau freedom fighter Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge was 84 when he
first went to school. Now, a new film celebrates his campaign to raise the profile
of primary education in Kenya

Oliver Litondo stars as Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge in The First Grader,

which is released in the UK this week. Photograph: c.Everett
Collection/ Rex Features c.Everett Collection / Rex Featu/c.Everett
Collection / Rex Featu
Guardian Global development is supported by:
About this content
Tracy McVeigh
Sunday 19 June 2011 00.04 BST

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The venue for the film's premiere was a tent erected over the hardpacked earth of the school playground. Instead of a red carpet, there
was a dusty green tarpaulin, and the white plastic chairs were a little

unsteady. Two classrooms had temporary screens set up, with the
rough-hewn wooden desks piled up outside, under a tree.
Never can an audience have been so riveted. For the children of the
village of Kisames, in the Ngong Hills, an hour's drive south of Nairobi,
the capital, this was the first sight of a screen. "Who has seen a movie
before?" asked Justin Chadwick, the director, of the 200 or so
youngsters. Not one hand went up. Though they were newcomers to
cinema, the children from the Oloserian primary school had already
taken a starring role in front of the camera in the film that Chadwick
had returned, a year after shooting, to screen. The First Grader, a
remarkable new British film that has its UK premiere next week, is
based on the true story of an unlikely African hero.
Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge was a Mau Mau fighter in the war of
independence against the British. When the Kenyan government
announced free primary education for all in 2002, he went to his local
school in Eldoret and demanded to be taught to read. He was 84.
Against fierce opposition from officials and parents, who did not want
a precious educational place to be given to an old man, Maruge was
accepted into the school to learn alongside the six-year-olds.
The headteacher who admitted him to class, Jane Obinchu, is played in
the filmby the British actor Naomie Harris. "It's not going to be the
most critical audience, but it's one I really care about," said Chadwick,
as a child-friendly cut of the film began in front of the assembled
children, village elders and a handful of parents and teachers.
Recalling the days of filming, he added: "The kids were wonderful. We
introduced the cameras really slowly, and because they hadn't seen
films or TV, they were more interested in their lessons than in cameras.
So we kept the scenes structured round lesson plans, and when I would
shout 'Cut', the kids would be asking 'Teacher Justin' to mark their
books. We promised we would come back and show them the movie,"
said Chadwick, "and it's wonderful to keep that promise. I hope they
are really proud of what they did."
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The importance of Maruge and this film goes beyond the children, who
squeal and point as they spot each other on the screen, and beyond the
electricity, running water and new classroom that the production
company was able to bring into this dirtyard school. It taps into a key
issue with which Kenya is battling: education. Last week it was revealed
that some 31m intended for primary schools had disappeared from
the ministry of education's coffers. There remain huge problems in
establishing schools in rural areas and in persuading poor parents that
they should put their children's education ahead of their employment.
In his determination to learn, Maruge drew attention to this. A
freedom fighter who had been imprisoned and tortured by the British,
he believed that education for all was one of the things that he had
fought for.
Maruge's story became known through local and then international
newspaper stories and he was invited to address the UN in 2005, where
he spoke of the importance of education in Africa. He kept at his
studies even as he was burned out of his home during the election
violence in 2008 and then diagnosed with stomach cancer. Maruge
died in a Nairobi nursing home in 2009.
"When people hear the story, they are inspired. Maruge has brought
many, many people into schools in Kenya," said Oliver Litondo, the
Kenyan TV journalist-turned-actor who plays Maruge. "Every day he is
inspiring Kenyans who had given up to seek what they want, age
notwithstanding. Maruge has rekindled ambition in people who did not
think they still had it."
Thoma Litei, who missed out on school as a child but enrolled at
Oloserian at 19, is one of those people: "I heard they were going to
make a film and then I heard about this man, the grandfather Maruge,
so I knew it was not too late. I wanted to read, and to know more
language, so I came to learn. That is why it is important for his story to
be known."
Thoma's decision upset his family, who wanted him to be married.
Pauline Sipilon, 14, who has been ostracised by her family after she
abandoned her goat-herding duties and came to school, suffers a

similar problem. "I cannot go back to that place where I lived, but now
I hope I can be a teacher," she said.
Mary Mbirua, Oloserian's headteacher, says that it can be difficult to
persuade parents of the value of schooling. When she first opened the
school, Mbirua had to go from hut to hut asking for pupils, some of
whose families were reluctant to part with their offspring. One girl,
Agnes Simaloi, who is now eight, has a deformed left leg and had been
hidden away inside the family hut. "Her parents said they could not
take her to the school. So I went and collected her. I carried her on my
back each day," said Mbirua.
Agnes can now walk to school on a prosthetic leg. The co-producer
of The First Grader, Trevor Ingman, stayed on after filming had
finished to help her parents with medical visits, and to make sure that
everyone involved in shooting was properly looked after. The
misconception of Hollywood dollars flowing into town is a tricky
expectation to manage for small-budget film companies. While Mbirua
is delighted that her pupils have had this chance, she worries that it
could give the wrong impression. As the film crew pack up after the
screening at the school, the children set off home some of them on a
walk of 10km to their huts in the surrounding hills.
"The only bad thing has been that some people now think because the
school has been in a movie that we are all now rich," she said. "That is,
sadly, not the case, so a lot of the children who were sponsored have
lost their sponsorship. But we will not be chasing any pupils out," she
adds, "we will just try to do what we can."
The First Grader has already been well received, coming second in the
People's Choice category at last year's Toronto International Film
Festival. It is the inaugural feature-length production of Origin
Pictures, set up by David Thompson, a former head of BBC Films.
With its themes of triumph over adversity, of the force and importance
of education, and of how the value of people doesn't diminish in old
age, The First Grader also touches on an airbrushed part of history
the cruelty of the British detention camps of the 1950s, where
Maruge was held.

"When I read the script I didn't stop," said Litondo. "I read all I could
read about the Mau Mau and started to get a feel about what it meant
to be people who didn't have anything fighting to get a piece of land.
For me, as a Kenyan, Maruge captured the scenario, the quest for
ownership of land by the landless. Maruge yearned for an education.
He thought: 'I have suffered to bring freedom', and the education was
the gold he wanted to get for his family. So he wanted to go [to school]
for them, for all those who had died fighting for freedom.
"The British didn't recognise that these people genuinely wanted
freedom. There has been a whitewashing of history. Now a British film
helps to change that picture for both peoples, for generations who don't
understand."
www.thefirstgrader-themovie.com/donate

Topics

Kenya

Africa

Mau Mau

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School pupil, 90, dies in

Kenya
Kenya's oldest pupil, Kimani Nganga Maruge,
has died in Nairobi aged 90.
The great-grandfather held the Guinness World
Record for being the oldest person to start primary
school, at the age of 84.
His house in the Rift Valley was burnt down in postelection violence last year and he was later moved

Kimani Nganga Maruge started school in

2004, aged 84

from a camp to an old people's home in the capital.

Despite the disruption, Mr Maruge kept hard at his studies and had two years left to
finish his primary education.
Mr Maruge, a veteran of the Mau Mau independence movement, never had the
opportunity to go to school when he was younger.
The father-of-five said he wanted to learn how to read the Bible for himself and he
was also suspicious that he might not have been getting his full pension so he was
also keen to study maths.
In 2004 he enrolled at Kapkenduywa primary school, in Eldoret, a year after the
Kenyan government introduced free primary schooling.
With one of the best attendance records he was made a prefect in the school.
Two of his 30 grandchildren, who had been at the same school, said he had
eventually wanted to complete a veterinary diploma.
'Courageous'
Mumbi Kamuri, head of Cheshire Homes in Kenya where Mr Maruge spent the last
year of his life, told the BBC he was dedicated to his studies right to the end.
Even after he was diagnosed with cancer in February he asked for teachers to teach
him at home, she said.
"He was a very courageous man," she said.
"Even if you don't see it through to the end, you will still have achieved something."
In 2005, he travelled to the United States where he called on world leaders
attending a summit to make education for the poor a priority.

The BBC's Will Ross in Nairobi says he will be remembered by many people as an
inspirational figure who brought new meaning to the phrase, "it's never too late".