When it comes to acquiring knowledge, age is no bar.
This was proved by a 50-year-old grandmother in Meghalaya who had cleared the higher secondary examination this year conducted by the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBoSE).
She is Lakyntiew Syiemlieh, the oldest student of Balawan College in Ri Bhoi district.
Syiemlieh dropped out of class IX in 1989 from Laitumkhrah Presbyterian Higher Secondary School because she was ‘scared of Mathematics’.
Years passed until she shifted to Umsning Lum-Umpih with her uncle and married in 1991.
Like other mothers she was busy raising her four children, until in 2008 she was asked by the village to teach in the SSA school with a salary of Rs 500 a month.
A word of inspiration from her colleagues to continue her schooling was her turning point.
It took her one year to decide and landed up as a student again in 2015 when she decided to join the evening school of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) after a gap of around 26 years.
Not giving up she decided to pursue further with her studies when she went to approach Balawan College for admission.
Lakyntiew attended the school as a non-regular student in 2018.
However she decided to don the uniform of a student when she cleared her XI examination and take her big step as a higher secondary student and sit for the board exams from St Michael Higher Secondary School.
Lakyntiew said she would pursue her Bachelors and take up Khasi as a major subject the same college, which is close to her school and her home.