Inception & History

Inspiration and initiation

Sri Y.B. Reddy (Yerramreddy Balakrishna Reddy ) and Sri Gunupati Subbarama Reddy of Kothuru took the initiation to open the school. They were guided by Sri Paturu Audinarayanaiah, then Kothuru karanam.

The trio consulted Sri Magunta Kota Reddy of Komarika village and requested him to open a school in Indukurupeta. Sri Magunta Kota Reddy was a land lord and mica business icon in Guduru, Nellore Dt. He was already planning  to open a school in Chintopu-Narukuru agraharam where he had his own lands. Sri Paturu Audinarayanaiah, to whom Sri Magunta Kota Reddy was very close, persuaded him successfully to open the school at Indukurupeta.

Establishment of the school

At that time to establish a new school, a corpus fund was to be deposited in the bank in the name of the school.  A sum of 35 thousand rupees was deposited by Sri Magunta Kota Reddy as corpus fund.  After his name the school became Sri MKR High School. (at that time the cost 1 acre land was about 500 rupees. The cost of 1 gram gold was about 3 rupees. One can imagine how generous he was. It can neither be repaid nor valued).

Sri Magunta Kota Reddy did not stop with the task of foundation of the school but he took the responsibility of paying salaries to the teaching and non-teaching staff. He continued this for nearly a decade till the school received grant in aid from the government of Andhra Pradesh.

Founder management of the school

Sri MKR High School committee was formed officially on 5th July 1952. The registered number of the society was 12 of 1952.

The following towering personalities strove hard for the development of the school.

#	Name	Designation	Address
1	Sri Magunta Kota Reddy	Patron	Komarika, Indukurpeta
2	Sri Kukati Kodandarama Reddy	President	Komarika, Indukurpeta
3	Sri Yerramreddy Balakrishna Reddy	Secretary	Kothuru
4	Sri Gunupati Subbarama Reddy	Treasurer	Kothuru
5	Sri Paturu Audinarayanaiah	Asst. Secretary	Kothuru
6	Sri Gunupati Venkata Ramana Reddy	Member	Kothuru
7	Sri Gurajala Venkaiah Choudary	Member	Indukurpeta
8	Sri Jonnalagadda Venkama Naidu	Member	Indukurpeta
9	Sri Bejawada Gopala Reddy	Member	Nellore
10	Sri Marupuru Kodandarama Reddy	Member	Nellore
11	Sri Ponnaluru Kota Reddy	Member	Guduru
12	Sri Vangallu Kodandarama Reddy	Member	Thotapalliguduru
13	Sri Duvvuru Balarama Reddy	Member	Mypadu

The beginning of the school

The managing committee got permission from the government of Andhra Pradesh to open the school from first form to fifth form in 1952 and SSLC in 1953.

Initially there was no own site for the school so the school was first started in the garden of Sri Paturu Audinarayanaiah in Kothuru. Sri Paturu Ramabhadra Rao, grand son of Sri Paturu Audinarayanaiah, was the first admission into the school. Thus another Shanthi Niketan was founded.

After a few months it was shifted to Sri Gunupati Yanadi Reddy garden. This was at south-west of present Sai Baba Temple. The school was run under the shades of trees for about a year. The students used to sit on wooden planks. Black boards were hung to the tree branches. The small thatched house in garden was the office of the school.

The founder headmaster was late Sri Venkata Rao. He was from Rajamahendravaram of East Godavari district. He served for five years from 1952 to 1957. Initial school set up, records office and school norms were developed by him.

Teachers and academic standards

Though there was not much infrastructure in the beginning, the standard of the teachers and the quality of education were very high. The management took lots of pains from the beginning to get teachers who were proficient in their subjects and sincere in their duty. One can understand this from the way they brought the founder headmaster from Rajamahendravaram. They went to Godavari district and enquired personally about Sri K. Venkata Rao and persuaded him to come to Indukurupeta all the way. He was provided accommodation at karanam’s house. They took similar pains in getting stalwarts as teachers.

Their efforts paved way in making of MKR High School a prestigious institution in later days.

Own site for school

Late Sri Y.B. Reddy of kothuru donated 3 acres of land for the school- existing school building area and  south-west part of play ground surrounding the hostel.

Then the school was shifted to own site. The class rooms were thatched sheds only. Benches were provided to students.

In 1954, the headmaster room, office room and another room for library were built by Sri Pasupuleti Sidhaiah, Municipal Chairman of Guduru, Nellore Dt. Now this is extinct.

In 1997, a new structure was built in its place by Sri J.K. Reddy and Sri Adala Prabhakara Reddy  in the name of Sri Gunupati Venkata Ramana Reddy, one of the members of first managing committee of the school.

Playground donors

Sri Amara Lakshmi Narasimha Gupta of Indukurupeta donated 2 acres of land for play ground (south part).

Later two acres of  land was acquired adjacent to the school and the total site became 7 acres. By the time Sri Amara Lakshmi Narasimha Gupta donated his Jasmine garden (malle thota) to MKR High School, he was about 25 years. He was married but had no children. Charity at such an early age was really remarkable. He planned play ground to the school in which his children to be born would study. He was such a great personality.

Development of infrastructure of school and the golden era

In 1957 Sri Magunta Kota Reddy requested late Sri Kuruvada (pusthakala) Ramanatha Sarma to be the headmaster the school. He was then working in V.R.C High School, Nellore. Then Sri Magunta Kota Reddy was residing at pogathota in Nellore.  Sri Ramanatha Sarma was also residing in the nearby locality (in Rayaji street). He was a teacher par excellence. He was a great teacher in maths and english.  He was famous not only in Nellore but also in entire district among students, parents, teachers and department of education.

Sri G.K Reddy, famous journalist and editor of ‘The Hindu’ was a tuition  student of  Sri Ramanatha Sarma. He wrote  to his guru in which he stated that “i am being honored for beauty of my english which I learnt from you up to third form (eighth class) only . Had I studied up to SSLC (now class 11) what would have been my recognition? It’s really unimaginable.” This shows the standard of english of Sri Ramanatha Sarma sir.

With the arrival of this legendary personality the golden era of MKR HS began. One day a snake fell from the thatched roof into the third form (class 8) classroom.  Fortunately no casualty took place.  At the same moment  headmaster sir strongly decided to plan for pucca building. Immediately he consulted  Sri Ponnaluru Veera Raghava Reddy of gudur. Sri Raghava Reddy was student of Sri Ramanatha Sarma when he worked in VRC high School. He revered his guru very much and contributed 25,000 rupees. Sri Ramanatha Sarma sir collected funds from the people of Indukurupeta mandal also (even  small donations like Rupees 100, 200, 250, 500, 1000,etc. ). The copy of list of donors is still in the school library.

First the ground floor of existing main building of the school  was constructed.later in the place of the thatched sheds,  six rooms with asbestos roof were built.

Meanwhile the school stood first in the district two times in SSLC. The reputation of the school grew and the strength of the school reached its peak i.e. 800 students. Then to accommodate increased strength, first floor of the main building was built. The famous x-a hall was constructed with a vision to hold conferences in the school.

Sri Ramanatha Sarma sir developed well equipped biology and physical science laboratories separately and a very good library. Sri Jonnlagadda Venkama Naidu was contributed for library and Sri Jonnalagadda Sreehari Naidu was contributed for laboratories. Both donors were from Indukurupeta mandal.

Sri Ramanatha Sarma sir did not stop there.  He wrote a letter to his classmate and intimate friend, who was a civil servant of chief secretary cadre, about grant in aid to the school. His friend promptly responded and the school received grant in aid.

With the government grant only dual desk benches were provided to the school. On the teak wood dual desk benches we can see the painted letters g.g (government grant).

With the best efforts of Sri Ramanatha Sarma sir only the school got permanent recognition in 1964 (vide dis no: 2819/64 dated 15th July 1964) from the government of Andhra Pradesh. In the same year, Sri Ramanatha Sarma garu passed away suddenly at an early age leaving behind him a full-fledged school with all amenities, name and fame. His legacy was continued by the successive headmasters and teachers. Under the management of Sri Y.B. Reddy, Sri Gunupati Subbarama Reddy, Sri Gunupati Ramachandra Reddy, Sri Jonnalagadda Murahari Rao, Sri Amara Lakshminarasimha guptga and others the school continued to flourish for decades.

Discipline of the school

From the beginning the school is known for its discipline. The founder headmaster Sri Venkata Rao and his successor sri ramanatha sarma set the tone of the institution . Later the same was maintained. Here it is worth mentioning the contributionof Sri Vasudeva Sarma sir.

He was nephew of Sri Paturu Audinarayanaih, one of the three  founders of the school.so initially he used help the management of the school in looking  after the school. Later, Sri Ramanatha Sarma sir appointed him as teacher in the school. He was student of Sri Ramanatha Sarma in VRC High School. He used sit in mentor’s class and enriched himself. He was a very good english and social studies teacher. He had mastery over his subjects. He was voracious reader of books.

After the sudden death of Sri Ramanatha Sama sir, the school management offered him the post of headmaster of the school. He politely refused and continued as assistant headmaster till 1986. He gave full support and cooperation to all the headmasters. Whenever there was a disturbance of any kind in the school both the management and headmaster used to depend on him. As a loyal employee and strict disciplinarian he used address on it. As a beloved student and junior colleague of Sri Ramanatha Sarma garu he did commendable job. He continued the legacy of his mentor till he retired as headmaster in 1988.

School Logo

Under the guidance of Sri Vasudeva sarma sir, drawing teacher Sri Dasaratha Ramaiah garu designed the logo of the school. We can see it on the top of front side of the school building. The sanskrit sloka in it was selected by Sri Vasudeva Sarma sir.

School Website & Digital Media

The school website (www.mkrhighschool) was launched in December 2021.  Thippana Prabhakar of 1982-87 Batch solely designed the website with the information obtained from the School. The main purpose of the website is to promote the school by sharing information about school and its activities to public. This also serves to connect past students and find ways to support school.

Thippana Mallikarjuna Rao from 1980-85 batch established social media connections using LinkedIn and YouTube to bring past students together and connect with the staff, students, management of the school.