{"id":8561,"date":"2023-09-28T00:39:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T00:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/indian-great-grandmother-92-finally-goes-to-school-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2023-09-28T00:39:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T00:39:13","slug":"indian-great-grandmother-92-finally-goes-to-school-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/indian-great-grandmother-92-finally-goes-to-school-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian great-grandmother, 92, finally goes to school | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nLUCKNOW:
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An Indian great-grandmother aged 92 has learned to read and write after going to school for the first time and inspiring others to join her, media and officials said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Salima Khan, born in around 1931 and who was married at the age of 14 — two years before the end of British colonial rule in India — had a lifelong dream of being able to read and write.<\/p>\n

Khan, from Bulandshahr in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said there were no schools in her village when she was a girl.<\/p>\n

Six months ago, she began studying alongside pupils eight decades younger than her, and she is accompanied on her way to class by her grandson’s wife.<\/p>\n

Her story emerged after a video of her counting from one to 100 went viral on social media.<\/p>\n

“My grandchildren used to trick me into giving them extra money as I couldn’t count currency notes,” she was quoted as saying by the Times of India. “Those days are gone.”<\/p>\n

India’s literacy rate is around 73 percent, according to the 2011 census.<\/p>\n

Read also:\u00a0Learning poverty<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Her story reinforces the belief that the pursuit of knowledge is not limited by age,” local education officer Lakshmi Pandey told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Volunteers from a government education initiative had identified Khan as a potential student and encouraged her to go to school, Pandey said.<\/p>\n

School headmistress Pratibha Sharma said teachers had been initially “hesitant” about embarking on teaching Khan, but were won over by her “passion” to study.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t have the heart to refuse her”, Sharma told the Times of India.<\/p>\n

Since she went to school, 25 women from her village have also started literacy classes, including two daughters-in-law, Sharma told the daily.<\/p>\n

Guinness World Records lists the late Kimani Ng’ang’a Maruge from Kenya as the oldest person to complete primary school, having enrolled in 2004 when he was aged 84.<\/p>\n

A former Mau Mau guerilla fighter against British colonial forces, Maruge started school wanting to count money and read the Bible, and was later appointed “senior head-boy”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n