India’s most respected all-boys boarding schools

Following subdivision of the boarding schools league table into three categories, The Doon School, Dehradun has regained its position as Indias most respected all-boys boarding school With the colonial tradition of single sex boarding schools gradually dying out in favour of healthier co-ed institutions, the league table of sufficiently well-known all-boys boarding schools is restricted to 24 primary-secondaries following disaggregation and sub-division of traditional/legacy boarding schools into three categories. And inevitably, the table is headed by the highly-respected The Doon School, Dehradun (TDS, estb. 1935) which because it was promoted shortly before independence, has a more balanced, liberal and inclusive tradition than some of the older boarding schools with histories of exclusion and discrim-ination. As such, Doon has been the preferred boarding school of the business, bureaucratic and political elites of post-independence India. However, during the past three years, the prime position of Doon had been successfully challenged by the co-ed, new age Rishi Valley School, Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh), which has captured the imagination of the SECA sample respondents of the annual EW India School Rankings. But with Rishi Valley shifted to the co-ed category, Doon has regained its position as the countrys most admired all-boys boarding school. Although they are becoming unfas-hionable, theres a good case for single sex schools. In the UK, where scores of schools in secondary and higher secondary board exams are routinely published and receive wide publicity, all-girls schools invariably top the league tables, followed by all-boys and co-ed schools in that order. Therefore there is a rational basis for the division of day and boarding schools into categories to facilitate comparison. Consequently Im not unhappy about your survey format, and Im particularly pleased about TDS high ratings/rankings on the parameters of internationalism and pastoral care, says Peter Mclaughlin an alumnus of the London School of Economics and former principal of the British Inter-national School, Cairo, who was appointed headmaster of Doon in 2009 following a global search. Roy Robinson, the cheerful and highly experienced headmaster of the Bishop Cotton School (BCS), Shimla is also satisfied with the subdivision of boarding schools into rational categ-ories which enable apples with apples assessment and comparisons. Boys boarding schools were pioneers in away-from-home education and they have their own character and traditions. Over the past half century since indep-endence, we have built upon our strong holistic education foundations and traditions and acquired a unique Indian character. Therefore I am particularly happy that we have scored high on the   parameters of sports education and on the newly introduced measures of internationalism and pastoral care, says Robinson who was principal at St. Peters School, Panchgani, and Stanes School, Coimbatore prior to being appointed principal of BCS in 2004. Subdivision and disaggregation of institutions for purposes of egalitarian comparison and evaluation have also benefited the true-blue Mayo College, Ajmer which has improved its ranking from #8 last year to #3 in 2013, The Scindia School, Gwalior (#10 to 4); Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun (#12-5), Birla Public School, Pilani (#10-6), Welham…