Every day’s a school day: the great-grandmother who goes to primary school

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Every day’s a school day: the great-grandmother who goes to primary school

A 92-year-old woman, in an area of India with low literacy rates, is inspiring others to learn how to read and write

he age range at Chawli primary school in Bulandshahr, northern India, has been wider than at other schools since the 92-year-old Salima Khan enrolled. The great-grandmother – who is known as Amma – struggles to walk far these days but for the past two years she has turned up as often as she can to the school in Uttar Pradesh, alongside her great-granddaughter-in-law, Firdaus, 35, and has learned to read and write.

Her enthusiasm for learning has motivated many young girls as well as married women in the area to enrol in school, including two of her daughter-in-laws. As her story has spread across social media, Amma has become a source of inspiration for women across the wider region of Uttar Pradesh, where about 30% of women are illiterate.

“I have been going to school for the last two years. I have studied for the most part,” says Amma, grinning as she says she was first attracted to the school by the free lunches that were supplied.

Amma, the 92-year-old great-grandmother who is inspiring generations of women to learn in her area of Uttar Pradesh.

Amma, the 92-year-old great-grandmother who is inspiring generations of women to learn in her area of Uttar Pradesh. Photograph: Jyoti Thakur/The Guardian

As a child, Amma had no chance of education and was married by the age of 14, two years before India gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947. With limited opportunities, she worked as a subsistence farmer while raising four sons and a daughter.

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Every day’s a school day: the great-grandmother who goes to primary school