Priscilla Sitienei, a 99-year-old woman believed to be the world’s oldest primary school pupil, has died at her residence in Kenya.

According to Sammy Chepsiror, her grandson, Sitienei began to develop health difficulties after attending class on Wednesday and died afterwards.

“Gogo has been in good health and attending classes until three days to her demise when she developed chest pains, which forced her out of school,” Chepsiror said.

Sitienei, according to BBC, and her 12-year-old classmates were due to write their final examinations next week and have been preparing diligently before her death.

She grew up in Kenya engaged by British colonial administrators and lived through her country’s struggle for independence.

Reports revealed that Sitienei’s story has inspired a French film and tribute from the United Nations culture and education agency, UNESCO.

Last year, she told UNESCO that she wanted to encourage young mothers to return to school.

“I wanted to show an example not only to them but to other girls around the world who are not in school, without education, there will be no difference between you and a chicken,” she said.

She joined Leaders Vision Preparatory School in 2010, but also served her village of Ndalat in the Rift Valley as a midwife for more than 65 years.

She had even helped deliver some of her own classmates, who were then aged between 10 and 14.

Sitienei, profoundly called “Gogo” which means grandmother in the local Kalenjin language, told the BBC in 2015 that she was finally learning to read and write – an opportunity she missed as a child.

World’s Oldest Man, Japanese Masazo Nonaka Dies At 113

“World’s oldest man” Masazo Nonaka, who was born just two years after the Wright brothers launched humanity’s first powered flight, died on Sunday aged 113, Japanese media said.

Nonaka was born in July 1905, according to Guinness World Records — just months before Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity.

Guinness officially recognised Nonaka as the oldest living man after the death of Spaniard Francisco Nunez Olivera last year.

“We feel shocked at the loss of this big figure. He was as usual yesterday and passed away without causing our family any fuss at all,” his granddaughter Yuko told Kyodo News.

Nonaka had six brothers and one sister, marrying in 1931 and fathering five children.

He ran a hot spring inn in his hometown and in retirement enjoyed watching sumo wrestling on TV and eating sweets, according to local media.

Japan has one of the world’s highest life expectancies and was home to several people recognised as among the oldest humans to have ever lived.

They include Jiroemon Kimura, the longest-living man on record, who died soon after his 116th birthday in June 2013.

The oldest verified person ever — Jeanne Louise Calment of France — died in 1997 at the age of 122, according to Guinness.

World Oldest Person, Japanese Nabi Tajima, Dies At 117 Years

Nabi Tajima, a Japanese woman, believed to have been the world’s oldest person, has died at the age of 117 in southwestern Japan, local media reported Sunday, April 22, 2018.

Tajima, a resident of Kikai Island in Kagoshima prefecture, had been hospitalized since January and died from old age at the hospital on Saturday evening, said the reports.

Born in 1900, Tajima was believed to have become the world’s oldest person after previous record-holder Violet Brown of Jamaica, died at 117 in September last year.

The Guinness World Records had been conducting surveys to officially recognize Tajima as the world’s oldest woman since the death of Violet Brown.

The organization recognized Masazo Nonaka, a 112-year-old Japanese man residing in Japan’s northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, as the world’s oldest living male earlier this month.