Elderly Rafiullah graduates from Ghazni University

GHAZNI CITY (Pajhwok): A 70-year-old Rafiullah graduated from Ghazni University’s literature department in southern Ghazni province three days ago.

Rafiullah said getting education was his interest; therefore, he daily travelled on bicycle 15 kilomtetres.

He was born in 1955 and enrolled in the school at the age of seven and got his school diplomat in 1976.

He said: “At that time, I passed the entrance exam to the Faculty of Languages ​​and Literature at Nangarhar University, but after a year of studying, I stopped studying due to the political turmoil in the country and started working in my own area.”

He has been a teacher at a girls’ school in the Shaliz area of ​​Ghazni’s capital since 2002.

Rafiullah said that in addition to his job, he had started his studies at the night department of the Faculty of Languages ​​and Literature of Ghazni University in 2018 and graduated with high grades three days ago.

He said: “I faced many difficulties while studying at university, the total salary of a teacher was eight thousand Afghanis, and I had no one to support me. Due to poverty, I was forced to send my only 16-year-old son to Iran, but he also returned after two years.”

He said he did not have children for 25 years but after his second marriage now he has six children.

Rafiullah said: “My classmates would make fun of me, saying that you’d die when you graduated from university, but I wished I had classmates of my level with whom I could joke as well.”

Samiullah Sahil, the Ghazni University Spokesperson, said people like Rafiullah and other would be provided learning opportunities irrespective of their age.

He said it is never late to get education.

It is pertinent to mention that the fighting of four decades deprived many people like Rafiullah from getting education.

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