At 91, Catalina Mendoza Starts School for the First Time in El Salvador

Immersed in a gesture of the realization that learning is an eternal process, the 91-year-old Catalina Mendoza, has embarked on attending a classroom for the first time in her lifetime. The senior student has just started basic education classes in El Congo in the Santa Ana Department of El Salvador, thus making her dream of being able to read and write come true after all these years. Mendoza's path to education was set after she was provided with free school materials through a government-backed education programme which is designed to give adults who never had an opportunity to go to school access to learning. What adds to the extraordinariness of the story is that Mendoza is not a lone learner.

She goes to classes in the evening with her 71-year-old daughter, Teresa Tobar, who has also become a member of the programme to advance her literacy skills. For Mendoza, going to the classroom at this time of life is both sentimental and uplifting. She had only a simple yet happy description of the event as she said that she is very happy" to finally be learning the basics of reading and writing. Programme staff emphasize that Mendoza's story is a great example to illustrate the importance of adult education, especially in the areas where factors like poverty or social circumstances have historically contributed to limited access to education.

In several countries in Latin America, authorities and community groups are actively working towards the extension of adult literacy programmes so that elder generations would not be deprived of the benefits of education while the provision of education is being widened with the aim of inclusive education.

The story of Mendoza indeed strongly supports the notion that education does not have a fixed age limit. The joy of first-time learners in a seven-grade class experiencing for the first time the opening of a notebook, the holding of a pencil, and the recognition of the alphabet after nearly a century of life should never be underestimated as a significant and meaningful event in the learner's life.