Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu, often shown in poor light owing to riots triggered by inter-caste marriages, now has a very good reason to feel proud of. A hamlet in the district has recorded hundred per cent literacy rate. What’s more is every house in the village has produced at least one teacher each.
The overall literacy rate in the district is a not so encouraging 64.71 per cent.
However, Makkanoor, a hamlet in the O G Halli panchayat in Papparapatti, defies the statistics. The village of Makkanoor has about 350 households and a total population of 1,500. Barring the elder generation, mostly from and before the 70’s, the rest of the population is literate and many have government sector jobs, mostly in the education sector. The 350 households have produced 350 teachers, who work across the state.
M R Gopal (71), a retired teacher of the Makkanoor middle school said, “We owe all the credit to R Subbharao, a freedom fighter and the village schools’ headmaster in the 1950s for this achievement.”
Subbharao conducted a relentless awareness campaign in the village, stressing the importance of education in the 1950s. “Back then, people didn’t allow girls to attend school. Subbharao knocked the doors of every household, determined to break the practice. After protracted efforts, the parents fell in line,” said Gopal. Taking Subbharao (July 07, 1910- July 31, 1995) as a role model, all the parents in the village groomed a teacher in their family.