I am having problems converting strings in a text file to JSON format. Right now I have 3 text files, and in each file, there are many rows of object in the file that I would like to convert to JSON format.

The strings are separated by a semicolon, as seen below:

```
mary; 24; female;1993; student
john; 21; male; 1982; student
luke; 22; male; 1988; student

```

How do i convert these to JSON format?

I tried using json.loads() but its not working. Your help is much appreciated thanks.