It’s one thing to want to try to recapture your lost youth, but would you really want to go through it all again? Xie Zuojin has no qualms, enrolling in a primary school at the age of 48.

The school had originally offered to provide Xie with books and a home tutor for private study, but she was having none of it, and instead has joined classmates a sixth of her age.

The Second Elementary School in Fengkou, in Fujian province in southeast China, agreed to provide a place in response to Xie’s persistence.

Xie struggles with literacy and numeracy, and says it was making life difficult and costing business at the pharmacy she runs with her husband. She is so determined to gain the skills she missed out on as a child that she insists school is the best place for her to study.

Xie is taking Chinese and maths classes alongside eight and nine-year-old children, and says her classmates are happy to help out when she gets stuck.

Once she has mastered the basics, she says she wants to go on to study English and learn how to use a computer.