Coimbatore: Alumnus helps govt school grow

Vishnu Swaroop | TNN | Updated: Sep 10, 2019, 15:49 IST

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COIMBATORE: Alumnus of a government school in the district has returned half-a-century later to do her bit to develop her alma mater.
Dr Pancharatna Anand, 75, studied at the Government High School, Kallapalayam, Sultanpet block, in 1964-65. Later, she studied medicine at the Madras Medical College and moved to the US in 1974 to practice as a paediatrician, which she did till 2015.
When she visited her school after 50 years in 2014, Dr Pancharatna felt that it needed more space.
So, she and her husband Yogi Anand, a structural engineer in the US, bought 1.5 acres land nearby and donated it to the school. The same year, they donated Rs 2 lakh to upgrade the school to a higher secondary school.
The school felicitated the couple this Teachers’ Day, wherein they used the opportunity to do more to the school.
“We saw that the school building needed repair and renovation. So, we assessed it and called a contractor to give us an estimate. We would fund the renovation work as well,” Yogi Anand said.

Speaking of her school memories, Dr Pancharatna said it was her headmaster Abdul Hameed who had inspired her to take up medicine. “After schooling I had planned to become a drawing teacher. But the headmaster said I had a flair for academics and insisted that I study medicine,” she said. Her schooling was not without its share of hurdles, however. After Class V, her father did not allow her to continue schooling. There ensued a six-year break, after which she went back to school and gave her Class VIII exam along with her younger sister. By then, her younger brothers were ahead of her. She battled all odds to succeed, said her relatives.
The school’s headmistress, S Manimala, said it was because of the efforts of the couple that the school had become a higher secondary school. “We are looking for funds through Nabard to construct more classrooms on the land they have donated us. Right now, we have around 250 students. We hope once we expand our infrastructure, we would get more students,” she said.