Never too old to learn

They say one can never be too old to get an education. John Langa from Devland, Johannesburg is living testimony of that. He started school in 2000 at the age of 75, inspired by a story of a 101-year-old learner.

‘I heard a story on the radio about a woman in England who left school when she married her Italian husband and immigrated to Italy during the war,” says Langa. ‘She recently returned to England and went back to school. She was 101 years old and studying for a BA degree. So I thought to myself, ‘If she can study at 101, what stops me?’.”

He admits he was a bit nervous on his first day. ‘There were other adult learners, but none were my age. I started having doubts, but my teacher was brilliant. She was considerate and understanding. As time went by, I felt comfortable and I know now that I made the right decision.”

Born and raised in Umlazi, Durban, Langa had never been to school before, not even when was a child. ‘Getting an education was not important during those times. The most important thing was for boys to know how to care for the livestock and girls to care for the house,” he explains.

Years went by and Langa, like many other young men his age, grew bored of farm life and moved to Johannesburg ‘to look for the gold that everyone was talking about”. He came to Johannesburg in 1940 and lived with his uncle in the Eastern Native Township, now known as George Goch. Langa worked in a clothing factory until his pension age.

It wasn’t until Langa had to apply for a new identity document that he really experienced the disadvantages of illiteracy. ‘Those people at home affairs gave me the forms to fill in. Nobody cared if I could read and write or not. I had to pay somebody to fill in the forms for me.”

Langa lives in a three-room house with his youngest son, daughter-in-law and five grandchildren. He says it is difficult to study with his five-year-old grandtwins, Michelle and Marcia, running around the house and making a noise. His two elder grandchildren Zinzi (in Grade 5) and Kwanele (in Grade 4) run away when he asks them to help with his homework. The twins both agree they would rather have their grandfather telling stories than doing homework.

Regardless of the difficulties he faces, Langa has proven that anything is possible if you put your heart into it. He received two awards for his outstanding achievement in Grade 1. He credits his former teacher for much of his success. ‘She used to make time for each one of us, checking our homework, giving extra work if she felt we needed it and made sure we knew how to read and write.”

All four of Langa’s children finished matric and are supportive of his decision to go to school. He says that if he were given a chance to do things over, he would have gone to school earlier. ‘I was quite clever as a child. In 1962 I attended classes at church. All the other people had been there for about six months and after only one month, I passed and left them all there.”

He may have come late to the experience, but Langa is one determined learner: ‘I would like to study for as long as I live and have the power to do it. If God saves me, I will even finish my matric.”