Elementary school graduate - at 86

Jung Dae-sung, 86, will graduate from an elementary school on Tuesday. / Yonhap

By Lee Min-hyung

A man, 86, will graduate from a Seoul elementary school on Tuesday after four years of classes.

“I cannot express how happy I have been while studying at the school,” said Jung Dae-sung, who was born during the Japanese colonial era. “I was very happy to go to school every day for the past four years.”

He had been illiterate all his life, but decided to go to school in 2011 when his children got old enough to have families.

“I was able to graduate with the help of good teachers and schoolmates,” he said. “I took a school trip for two days for the first time in my life.”

The Japanese military forced him to serve as a soldier when he was only 16. Only a few days after he was conscripted, Korea was liberated.

Then came the 1950-53 Korean War. After the war ended, he did everything he could to support his wife and four children.

He did not go to school until he entered Yangwon Elementary School in 2011.

His wife studied with him, but she was unable to graduate because she was injured in an accident on her way home from school in 2014.

“She recently left the hospital, but has to rest at home,” Jung said. “She cannot come to the graduation ceremony.”

Jung now wants to go to middle and high school.

“I am old, but still healthy,” he said. “I will do my best to study even at a university.”