Shri K.R.Ramamani was born on November 30, 1927 in Shimoga, Mysore to Shri K.S.Rajagopala Iyengar, a leading Civil Advocate. A stellar student, he joined the Madras Presidency College at the age of 16 for his undergraduate studies in B.SC. (HONS.) PHYSICS. He was admitted to the Bar in 1950 and joined a leading firm as an Apprentice of Law. Blessed with a razor-sharp intelligence and an unassuming manner he was promoted to Partner in his firm thereafter called Subbaraya Aiyar, Padmanabhan & K.R.Ramamani Advocates (S.A.P.R Advocates).
The S.A.P.R firm grew to become one of the leading firms in direct & indirect taxation in the whole of India, especially South India. With his growing sphere of influence, Shri.K.R.Ramamani was called to head many professional associations, societies and committees. He was appointed for two terms as a member of the Central Tax Advisory Committee, constituted by the Government of India. He was truly a doyen of the Bar and has served as the President of the Revenue Bar Association. He served on the Board of Directors of about 22 leading companies.
He was the Founding Trustee of the Child’s Trust Hospital and also served as a Trustee for the Indian Bank Mutual Fund and a member of the Ethics Committee of Sankara Netharalaya.
One day he noticed young children working in a farm. This spurred him to start the modest RMT Matriculation School in Madarpakkam, located in the AP/Tamil Nadu border 65kms north of Madras. Shri.K.R.Ramamani’s vision was to provide free English-medium education to the economically downtrodden, rural children who would otherwise be used for daily labour. The RMT School was thus born and functions as a fully charitable English-medium school providing free quality education, books, uniforms and milk to over 450 students today. It grew from a one room school to a large sprawling campus and has been built bit by bit by the founder’s family with very little outside help and contributions. Buses were bought on installments and labs built one by one. Shri.K.R.Ramamani was struck ill by a heart attack and died due to complications arising from it on March 6th 1998.
Late Shri.Ramamani, along with his family, have been involved in charitable activities for more than fifty years by donating to a plethora of charitable causes and sponsoring education for economically-backward students. Furthermore, it was Founder’s wish that RMT Matriculation School be started in a totally rural, economically-backward area and specifically cater to the up-liftment of the rural masses by providing affordable quality education to them.
Keeping with the Founder’s vision, on 21st July 1996 the RMT School was started with a roll of 124 pupils and 6 Teachers. The strength of the school has been steadily increasing over the past decade and the students have participated and won in many competitions and exams. Since his death it has been run by his daughter Honourable Smt. Asha Vijayaraghavan despite her busy schedule as a Judicial Member. It was founded to provide a unique environment and thus it provided
- an “English-medium” school, which is a rarity in the surrounding rural areas.
- FREE books every year to all the students prescribed by the Government and sourced from reputed vendors in Chennai.
- FREE stitched uniform to all the students.
- FREE milk, once a day, to all the students.
- The school, along with Lions Club, conducts a FREE medical camp yearly for the students and their parents
- The school runs a FREE first-aid clinicwith the help of Dr.Sreedhar from Madras
- With a development oriented and leadership moulding approach, the school conducts annual Teacher training workshops free of cost in collaboration with Chellammal Educational Society
- In keeping with its ideal of providing excellent infrastructure facilities in a remote area, RMT Matriculation School provides heavily subsidized transport to all its students by covering a large radius of ~22kms of villages around the school.
- fully-functional computer lab with internet access and science labs.
- sprawling campus comprising of over 10 acres of land and over 20,000 sq.ft of buildings.
Year after year these gifted children prove that circumstances can be won over and have blazed a trail for themselves in their 12th and 10th Grade National exams.