Jharkhand education minister Jagarnath Mahto set a unique example on Monday to prove that age is no bar for continuing education.

The 53-year-old Mahto, who had discontinued studies after passing the school final examination 25 years ago, got himself admitted for intermediate classes on Monday.

“Yes, I just took admission in an inter college today,” Mahto confirmed when The Telegraph contacted him immediately after he took admission in an inter college on Monday.

“It’s Devi Mahto Smarak Inter Mahavidyalaya, a rural inter college at Nawadih in Bokaro district,” the minister informed when asked about the college where he took admission.

A native of Alargo village in Bokaro district, Mahto, the oldest among five children of Nem Narayan Mahto, had also cleared his school final examination rather late in his life. He had passed the final examination of Class X in 1995.

“It was Nehru High School at Telo in Bokaro district,” Mahto said when asked about the school from which he had cleared the school final examination. “I thought of resuming studies without further delay,” Mahto further said, adding he could not do it so far due to other pressing demands of his political and social life.

After passing the school final examination, Mahto got actively involved in politics and were in thick of it.

In 2005, when the first Assembly election was held in the state after Jharkhand was carved out of erstwhile undivided Bihar in November 2000, he got elected as an MLA from Dumri Assembly constituency in adjacent Giridih district as a candidate of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).

In the next three Assembly elections in 2009, 2014 and 2019, Mahto retained the seat, proving Dumri was a JMM stronghold.

When Hemant Soren became the chief minister, he picked up Mahto as a member of the council of minister and allotted him the education portfolio.

Though it never became an issue as such, some of the JMM adversaries would express their displeasure about the choice of the education minister who did not study beyond high school.

It now remains to be seen if they appreciate, if not admire, the spirit of Mahto who resolved to resume studies after a really long gap of a quarter of a century.