Wearing a crisp red and white uniform and with her hair carefully coaxed into pigtails, 63-year-old Poonsri Seangnual prepares to attend class. She is a pupil at the School for the Elderly in the Chiang Rak Noi district of Ayutthaya, Thailand, and catches a bus to the school with friends who are also aged in their 60s and 70s.

For Seangnual and her classmates, and similar groups across the country, returning to school is a way to combat loneliness at a time when changing demographics mean that more elderly people live alone. “I really like going to school. I gain knowledge and it’s really fun. I have a lot of friends, know a lot more people,” she said.