Frank's a pass master at 83!

Frank was just one of 500 adult students studying with Bolton Community Education Service who packed the Festival Hall in Bolton in two sittings to pick up their certificates and awards in front of family and friends this week.

All the students study part-time either during the day, evenings or at weekends from the extensive 800 subjects.

This year there were so many students that the event had to be moved to a bigger venue.

And the oldest student of the day was Frank from Hall i'th' Wood who picked up his foundation certificate for Spanish -- he is now hoping to plough on and take his GCSE.

Frank, told how he took up the subject because he has a Spanish-speaking daughter-in-law, Beatrice, in Argentina. And although he may not be able to converse with her fluently, he added: "We get by."

Frank, who used to work at British Rail at Horwich, has always had a yearning for languages -- he took his German GCSE in 1997.

"I suppose I picked up a liking for them when I was in the Navy," he added. He also learned Esperanto several years ago.

As well as GCSEs there are also awards in City and Guilds, foundation courses and teaching courses.

Eileen McNulty, marketing officer for the Community Education Service, said: "A lot more adults are going back to education and lots are studying computers. Community Education is the fastest growing education service."

She added: "The presentation ceremonies were quite moving and quite emotional."

It was not just students getting awards -- for the first time eight tutors were also presented with certificates from the National Organisation for Adult Learning.

They were put forward for the awards by their students in the first-ever scheme of its kind in the country.

And it came as a shock to the tutors. One of them, Joyce Read, said: "We were absolutely flabbergasted when we heard we had won these awards. Our students did not tell us that they were putting us forward."