On several occasions in the past quarter when our energies have been totally focused on compiling, checking and cross-checking scores across 14 parameters, totals and rankings of over 4,000 of India’s best primary-secondary schools (from a universe of 1.5 million) — since it was tentatively pioneered in 2007, the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR) survey has evolved into the world’s largest and most comprehensive schools ranking survey — not a few within the EducationWorld teams felt the world was too much with us. We burned the midnight oil to get massive tables — the co-ed day schools league tables featuring institutional scores of almost 3,000 schools sprawled across 120 pages — right. We are only too aware that for ranked schools every detail is of high importance (see mailbox page).
In last month’s unprecedented 396-page issue, we published league tables ranking the country’s most admired Day schools — co-ed, boys and girls – nationally, in states, cities/towns and parameters-wise. Vintage/legacy day schools (established more than 90 years ago) were similarly rated and ranked inter se separately. This month, we feature the glamour section of EWISR 2023-24 — the country’s best boarding (co-ed, boys and girls) and International schools (day, day-cum-boarding and residential) plus vintage schools in each sub-category.
With India’s upper middle class having become acutely aware that high quality K-12 education is the prerequisite of building a strong foundation for meaningful higher education and career success of children, globally benchmarked boarding, and especially international schools affiliated with reputed offshore exam boards such as International Baccalaureate, Cambridge International and Advance Placement are mushrooming countrywide. Moreover, the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which has liberalised and deregulated the education sector, has smoothed the passage of international schools to India.
It’s pertinent to note that in this Part-II edition of EWISR 2023-24, the best Central and state government day and boarding schools, special needs, philanthropic and budget private schools are also rated and ranked by specially constituted SEC (socio-economic category) B, C and D sample respondent groups. The objective of the annual EWISR is to identify the best schools in diverse categories across the spectrum, and to hold them up as exemplars for their peer institutions to emulate. This we believe will raise up the entire floor of school education and ensure better learning outcomes in the broadest sense. This is a condition precedent of national development in the 21st century.
