Delhi’s most preferred preschools 2016-17

Last year The Magic Years — Delhi’s #1 proprietary preschool for several years — was bested by Step by Step, Panchsheel. But this year it has reclaimed its #1 position in the national capital. Here are Delhi’s most preferred preschools 2016-17 No city, town or community nationwide is more aware of the critical importance of professionally-administered early childhood care and education (ECCE) than Delhi (pop. 18.6 million), a sprawling megalopolis which hasn’t only been awarded the status of a state of the Indian Union but whose reach under the name and style of Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) sprawls across two other states — Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The annual stampede for admissions into the city-state’s most admired pre-primaries which coincides with the onset of the winter season, is frantic with queues formed by anxious parents ready and willing to brave the national capital’s toxic early morning air pollution to obtain all-important admission forms for their infants, quite common and ubiquitous.  This annual, under-reported phenomenon is unsurprising because admission into the national capital’s top-ranked pre-primaries — especially preschools attached to the city’s most reputed primary-secondaries — is the passport for entry into Delhi’s too-few top-ranked K-12 schools, eliminating the subsequent scramble for admissions into them for 12 years. However, since 2016 your editors have discontinued the rankings of pre-primaries attached to composite K-12 schools as their rankings were coincident with the annual EW India School Rankings published in September every year. But given the huge expansion of the national capital’s population after the overdue liberalisation and deregulation of the Indian economy in 1991 and middle class in particular, the annual rush for admission forms of the city’s most reputed standalone proprietary and franchised preschools is only slightly less frantic.  Against this backdrop, field researchers of the highly-reputed Delhi-based market research and opinion polls company C fore, interviewed a sample respondents database comprising 760 parents with children in preschool, principals and teachers in Delhi and persuaded them to rate and rank 37 owned/proprietary and 26 franchised preschools in their city.  Owned/proprietary Preschools For the past seven years since this publication began rating and ranking the country’s best pre-primaries in the public interest, The Magic Years, Vasant Vihar (TMY, estb. 1984), the national capital’s pioneer preschool, has been voted Delhi’s #1 proprietary pre-primary. However, last year there was break in this tradition with TMY conceding the #1 position to the equally highly-venerated Step by Step, Panchsheel. But this year with top scores awarded under the parameters of teacher competence, teacher welfare & development, value for money, individual attention to students/teacher-pupil ratio, innovative teaching, safety and hygiene and leadership, TMY has bested all other 35 owned/ proprietary preschools in Delhi. Step by Step, Panchsheel (#2), Little Pearls, Vasant Vihar (joint #2), The Ardee Montessori Sujan Singh Park (3), Amiown, Pushp Vihar (joint #3), Adyant, Vasant Kunj (4) Petals, Nirman Vihar (joint #4) and The Learning Tree, Sujan Singh Park (5) make up the rather crowded 2017-18 Top 5 table.  “Naturally I’m very pleased…