By: Ollus Ndomu
A Kenyan primary school pupil aged 99, died peacefully on Thursday at her home in Kenya, the family said Friday.
Priscilla Sitienei, the world’s oldest pupil reportedly fell sick on Wednesday after attending class.
According to local media, she, and her teenage classmates, had been getting ready for final exams scheduled for next week.
The education story of Ms Sitienei’s inspired a film and attracted praise from the UN’s culture and education agency, UNESCO.
In an interview with UNESCO last year, Ms Sitienei said she went back to school to motivate young mothers who thought age was a limiting factor to acquire an education.
“I wanted to show an example not only to them but to other girls around the world who are not in school, without education, there will be no difference between you and a chicken,” she said.
In 2010, she joined Leaders Vision Preparatory School in addition to serving her village of Ndalat in the Rift Valley as a midwife for more than six decades.
She is remembered for many things including helping her classmates [aged between 10 and 14] to deliver.
Fondly known as “Gogo”, which means grandmother in the local Kalenjin language, she told the BBC in 2015 that she was finally learning to read and write – an opportunity she never had as a child.
Ms Sitienei often confronted children who were not in school and asked them why.
“They tell me they are too old,” she said. “I tell them: ‘Well I am at school and so should you.'”
“I see children who are lost, children who are without fathers, just going round and round, hopeless. I want to inspire them to go to school,” she added.
‘Her message lives on’
At first the school turned her away but soon understood how committed she was to learning.
Her story was told in a French film titled Gogo, which opened an opportunity for her to visit France and meet first lady Brigitte Macron.
The film’s co-writer Patrick Pessis paid tribute on Twitter: “Her message about girls’ education lives on.”
The current record for the world’s oldest primary school pupil in the Guinness Book of Records is held by another Kenyan, the late Kimani Maruge.
He went to school at the age of 84 in 2004 and died five years later. Additional reporting by the BBC
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