At 105, when most people would consider their school years a distant memory, Bhageerathi Amma picked up her textbooks again. The woman from Prakkulam in Kollam returned to formal education in 2019 and appeared for the Kerala State Literacy Mission’s Class 4 equivalency examination. She scored 75% overall and secured full marks in mathematics, earning national attention as one of the country’s oldest learners to clear such an examination.
Her achievement, however, was shaped by a story that began nearly a century earlier, when circumstances forced her to leave school before she could complete her education.
