‘My classmates are like my grandchildren’: Italian woman returns to school at 90

‘When the war broke out, everything changed for me. I had to go and work, as my family struggled and I had to play my part. Once upon a time, only those who had money could study.’ Photograph: SUPPLIED

An Italian woman who missed out on formal education because of the second world war has returned to the classroom to study for her school diploma – at the age of 90.

Annunziata Murgia is the oldest person ever in her evening class to attend lessons for the licenza media, or middle school diploma, an exam typically taken by children in lower secondary education at the age of 14. She does so at the centre close to her home in Dolianova, Sardinia.