| Jang Ok-soon, right, poses for a photo at Chungcheongbuk-do Office of Education in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, Tuesday. Courtesy of Chungcheongbuk-do Office of Education |
By Bahk Eun-ji
An octogenarian has passed a qualification exam equivalent to a high school diploma, becoming the oldest person to achieve the feat, according to the Chungcheongbuk-do Office of Education, Tuesday.
Jang Ok-soon, 84, said she hopes to become a college student if she has enough energy to do so.
“I really want to go to college. If I were like 14 years younger than now, I would have entered college without any worries, but I wonder how my health would be, considering my age,” she said.
Jang passed the exam for a middle school diploma in August 2017. Since 2018, she applied six times for the biannual high school equivalency diploma and finally passed this time.
“I was so disappointed when I failed last year's exam with an average score of 59.85 points,” Jang said, adding the minimum score to pass the test was 60 points.
“I like mathematics because it's fun, but studying English was the most difficult because I'm not really good at memorizing new vocabulary. I only just managed to do it but I'm proud of myself.”
Jang was born in Uiseong, North Gyeongsang Province. Like many children at that time, financial difficulty in her family prevented her from going to school. At the age of 19 she moved to Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, and got married when she was 25.
“I entered elementary school during the Japanese colonial period, and after liberation, I graduated from elementary school during the Korean War. I couldn't study any longer because of such difficult circumstances. I always thought about studying, but when my husband died 30 years ago, I lost another chance because I had a hard time raising my children alone.”
Jang said she belatedly resumed her study at a senior welfare center in Jecheon in 2016.
“I had my two sons study at universities because I didn't want them to give up learning. I didn't want them to experience such an empty feeling I had when I had to stop going to school,” Jang said.