Kampala — Why would a 70-year-old dare to sit A'level examinations?

Boniface Ileut was unfazed as he turned up to sit the 2008 Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) at Central View High School, Mukono.

"I am fighting the old age dependency syndrome!" he says. "I want to take care of my needs, not ask my children for salt, sugar or a shirt."

Mzee, as his classmates and would-be grandchildren baptized him, adorns spectacles, but thinks advanced age has nothing to do with it. "Haven't you seen seven-year-olds wear them?"

Humorous, hardworking and knowledgeable are adjectives that identify Ileut who can still take part in a 100m race.

At the school, Ileut, draped in his white shirt, navy-blue trousers with black shoes, is not isolated. He leaves one bunch of students to join another.

"He is my grandfather's agemate," says Ivan Bagonza, "but I am very free with him. We joke and laugh a lot."

This senior citizen is among the 89,921 students who are doing their UACE exams.

He is studying History, Economics and Divinity. Ileut wrote his first exam, Economics, on November 10.

"I want to be an example to people who fear studying at an advanced age," he says. "Education has no age limit."

Innocent Muramuzi, the headmaster, has known Ileut for two years. "I am sure he will pass because teachers help him out a lot," he says.

Ileut was born to Mikaili Otim and Josephine Akwi in a family of 11 in Usuk county, Katakwi district.

He went to Usuk Boys' School where he sat his Primary Leaving Exams.

However, he did not join junior secondary or senior secondary at the time.

"My parents were living below the poverty line," he says. "They couldn't pay my school fees anymore."

When that door 5slammed, another opened. In 1956, Ileut enrolled at St. Aloysius Teacher Training College, Ngora and later Soroti Teacher Training College, obtaining a Grade II teaching certificate.

He went back to his primary school to start a career as a teacher in 1958. For the next 16 years, Ileut taught in eight primary schools.

Dust settled on his career in 1974 at Kapelebyong Primary School. "I felt it was the time to quit (teaching) for farming."

From hero to zero

By 1988, Ileut was a prominent farmer, owning 153 head of cattle. But with the cattle raids by the Karimojong, he lost all his wealth.

He left his native Ngariam sub-county in Katakwi district and settled in Abarilela sub-county in Amuria.

"I wanted to buy a car," he recollects. "But I lost everything. I had to start again from zero!"

Having planted 15 acres of groundnuts in 2003, another debacle struck; Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army(LRA).

He not only lost his crop, but also his son, Simon Teko, a Senior Three student of Mbale SSS who went missing and has never resurfaced.

Ileut says Kony killed over 200 people in Abarilela. "That was the worst attack," he says. "I think my son also died."

In the aftermath of the raid, one of Ileut's agemates committed suicide.

"I want to work hard (and amass wealth) to avoid frustration," Ileut says.

He looks after 20 orphans in Abarilela, many of whom lost parents during the LRA raid.

Aspirations

Advanced age, certainly, takes a toll on a person. But, while Ileut knows he cannot get the high marks he wants, he is settling for at least a principle pass in Econoics to aid the diploma in democracy and development studies he aspires to do at Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi.

Uganda National Examinations Board weighed his Grade II teaching certificate to be equal to 0'level qualifications.

While Ileut is sitting his UACE, he has only been at the Mukono-based school for a week.

"I only registered for exams," he says. "My children bought me pamphlets which I have been reading for two years."

With 50-acres of land to his name, Ileut hopes to do commercial agriculture, as well as mobilising people in his village to fight poverty after studies.

"I was the first Resistance Council 3 chairman in Abarilela in 1986," he says proudly. "Don't forget to mention it."

However, he does not want to return to politics.

"Politics is now a dirty game because its players have decided so," he says. Many people are running to towns for jobs, but leaving many other jobs in the villages.

"I want to rally people in my village to get riches from the soil."

He says for the Government to boost rural growth and development, it is prudent to address insecurity and deliver social amenities like roads, water and electricity.

"At my age, I can't apply for a job, but I can be prosperous using my head and hands, if security is guaranteed."

Rev. Alex Ojacor, his third-born, has a PhD in Theology, while Goretti Kulume, 34, is a third year veterinary medicine student at Makerere University.

His last-born, Benard Ecokit, 26, is doing entrepreneurship at Makerere University Business School (MUBS). However, Ileut cannot say the number of children he has - it is against the Iteso culture. "In fact, I can only mention it when I am about to die," he says.

He thinks the Government has not done enough to boost the universal primary and secondary education programmes.