India’s best international day schools 2015
EducationWorld September 15 | Cover Story EducationWorld
For the third year in a row, Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai has swept the board across almost all parameters to be ranked the country’s #1 international day school To all intents and purposes, the Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai (DAIS) seems to have consolidated its position at the very top of the EW national league table of international day schools. Since 2013, this CAIE, UK and IBO (Geneva)-affiliated K-12 school has been voted the country™s #1 international day school. The 1,925 sample respondents comprising parents, students, teachers, principals and educationists interviewed by C fore in the western region have also rated the co-educational DAIS #1 on the parameters of academic reputation (for the fifth year in a row), competence of faculty (fourth successive year), teacher welfare and development (third consecutive year), leadership/management quality, and special needs education. DAIS’ top rating on the academic reputation parameter for the past five years is unsurprising given that in CAIE’s IGCSE class X exam 2015, 88.84 percent of students achieved A and A* grades, substantially higher than the global average of 28.78 percent per school. Comments Nita M. Ambani, founder-chairperson of DAIS, which has an enrolment of 1,067 students mentored by 144 teachers: We are both proud and humbled by this recognition. Our constant endeavour is to enhance the quality of education by implementing best pedagogical practices, and recruiting the best teachers and leadership talent and providing them opportunities for professional development, through participation in national and international workshops. The competence and commitment of our teachers and the motivating learning environment we provide our students is reflected in our school’s outstanding exam results and university placements, and our #1 rank on academic reputation, faculty competence and teacher welfare and development. Special needs education has also always been a top priority, and with the support of a dedicated team of teachers, counsellors, and para educators we have been able to make much headway. We are now working on implementing a programme for academically gifted children. India’s second-ranked international day school, Ecole Mondiale World School (estb. 2004) ” also sited in the country’s commercial capital ” is runner-up for the third consecutive year. However, the low-profile International School of Hyderabad (ISH) has risen sharply in the public esteem from #8 in 2014 to #3 nationally and #1 in Telangana and Hyderabad (pop.3.6 million). Promoted in 1982 by the Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics (ICRISAT), granted special status as a United Nations organisation by the Indian government, ISH is sited on a 10-acre plot within the 3,500-acre ICRISAT campus, and is conferred the status of a school administered by a foreign/consular mission. I am pleased but surprised as I am unsure who voted for us as our student and parents body is wholly international, and our teachers are from the UK, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium and Spain as well as India. Our prime objective in ISH is an individualised and personalised approach to learning. We accord high priority to learning…