Annunziata Murgia is oldest person ever to attend lessons at her evening class after second world war ruined her studies 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 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 I’ve always liked it,” she told Il Messaggero as my family struggled and I had to play my part Murgia said she learned to sew when she was a child and went on to become a seamstress also because I experienced a good part of the history written about in books – I saw the consequences of the first world war and lived through the second one.” Murgia’s youngest classmate is 16, a pupil who will re-sit the diploma as Murgia makes her first attempt in June. Passing the exam, which includes tests in Italian literacy and maths, is required to be able to progress to higher secondary education, which in Italy ends at 18 described Murgia as a very passionate and engaged pupil “Although she has some difficulties hearing and wasn’t in the best form yesterday due to a fall The school mainly caters for adult learning and those aged 16-20 needing to retake school exams The average age of students in Murgia’s class is 40-plus some of whom are also preparing for the middle school diploma “Often they are women who recoup their education after having children or people who never obtained the diploma and need it for work as it’s the minimum education requirement,” said Pilia The last person in Murgia’s age group to sit for the exam at the school was an 87-year-old woman Murgia said her teachers are “fantastic” and classmates are “like my grandchildren”