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28 March 2024

70-year-old Emirati defies age for education

Umm Yousuf (Supplied)

Published
By Staff


Every night, an Emirati woman in her 70s gather her 26 grand children around her at home in Dubai not to tell their fairy tales but to teach them. Yet the woman is still attending literacy classes.

Mariam Mubarak, better known in her area as Umm Yousuf, has completed four years of study at the Princess Haya bin Hussein Islamic culture centre and wants to join school to pursue lessons. But she does not want to stop there as she hopes to be able to join college after school so she can fulfill an age-long dream of becoming a school teacher.

After she was an illiterate person, Umm Yousuf can now read and write and has also memorized many parts of the holy Koran. Yet she is still one of the most punctual students at the centre.

“Every night, Umm Yousuf gathers her grand children around her and set up an ad hoc classroom for them…she tells them about her lessons at the centre and recites Koran verses so they will memorise them…like a chorus, they repeat after her and listen to her but sometimes they correct some information for her….during the morning until noon, Umm Yousuf spends her time at the literacy centre,” the Arabic language daily Emirat Alyoum said.

“Umm Yousuf says that she is doing so because she was deprived of education when she was a child because of the long distance between her home and school at that time and also for social reasons…she says that her dream since she was a child was to become a school teacher…she joined many literacy centres in 1986 but she could not continue as she had to look after her family.”

Emirat Alyoum said Umm Yousuf has nine sons, including government employees and military officers, who have 26 children.

“I have always dreamt of becoming an Arabic language and Islamic studies teacher…once that centre started to receive woman of my age, I rushed and registered…now I am one of the top students and can also educate myself outside the centre,” Umm Yousuf said.

“My wish now is to join a school, which I hope to achieve soon…afterwards, I will try to join college so I can fulfill my dream of becoming a teacher in a primary school.”

The paper quoted her son, Ahmed Al Mansouri, as saying he and his brothers are fully supporting their mother to allow her to fulfill her dream. “My father, Saeed, is also supporting her so she will achieve her wish and become, probably, the oldest teacher in the country.”

He said his mother had also started learning English language so she will become a “fully qualified teacher.”

“Her old age does not prevent her from going to the literacy centre daily…even when she does not feel well, she just gets ready and head for the centre…at night, she sits among her 26 grand children and review lessons with them,” he said.

“She also tells them about how the UAE federation was established and the great efforts made by late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum.”