51-year-old grandmother of 8 sits UCE exams

 Jane Emodiai, 51 years old, a mother of five and grandmother of eight, is one of the 183 Senior Four candidates sitting the Uganda Certificate of Education exams at Tororo Millennium Universal College, Tororo Municipality.

Jane Emodiai, 51, a mother of five and grandmother to eight, is one of the 183 Senior Four candidates sitting the Uganda Certificate of Education exams at Tororo Millennium Universal College in Tororo Municipality.

The candidate is also openly HIV-positive. She lost her husband, Christopher Emodiai, in 2007.

Speaking to the press on Monday morning before the start of the Geography Paper One examination, Mrs Emodiai said she sat for her Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) in 2009 at Abubakar Primary School in Tororo town, scoring 27 aggregates.

Dressed in her school uniform – a blue skirt, cream blouse, blue neck tie and black polished shoes – Ms Emodiai said she decided to go back to school after missing job opportunities.

“When I worked as a drama actress in TASO, jobs were internally advertised for sweepers or tea girls but I could not qualify for any since I lacked even ‘O’ level papers which were required. I decided to go back to school and attain those papers,” she said.

She wants to become a rights activist, she says, a voice for the voiceless, especially children and women experiencing domestic violence.

Adeka Ofwono Oboth, Emodiai’s teacher for the past four years at Tororo Universal College, describes her as hard working, disciplined and a counselor to fellow students.

Mr Oboth also taught Emodiai’s three daughters at Tororo Girls’ School. One of them, Barbra Akware, is the Youth Councilor for Merikit Sub County, Tororo District.