Who ever said that schooling was just for children? As grown adults, we learn new things every day becoming better people along the way. But adults have one thing that children do not: life experience. Someone who brings this to the table is Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge (Oliver Litondo) in an uplifting story about the politics of the education system, The First Grader.
Based on the true story, Maruge is an 84-year-old Kenyan villager who wanders into a local school after hearing about a new "Free Education For All" policy endorsed by the Education Department. He has no money, no loved ones and no skills in literacy or numeracy. Jumping through hoops, he is finally accepted and is guided by the young, loveable and wholesome teacher Ms. Obinchu (Naomie Harrris). But naturally, this causes a great deal of controversy in the press and larger community, believing it to be wrong for such a man to be educated alongside young children. But as Maruge fights for his right to be educated, we learn of another fight he endured back in the 1950s, when during British Colonial rule he was tortured, imprisoned, and his wife and two young children executed before his eyes. Told through a series of memory flashbacks these sequences are quite upsetting and almost distracting and supplementary to the central plot, but are helpful in explaining his physical handicaps.
Maruge currently holds the Guinness World record for the oldest person ever to begin primary school education and as such, marks a true example of principal and integrity.
