The number of preschools — proprietary and franchised — ranked in the EW Ahmedabad league table has risen from 26 in 2017-18 to 34 in 2019-20 with ten new pre-primaries debuting this year. Here are Ahmedabad’s best preschools 2019-20. The early childhood care and education (ECCE) sector in Ahmedabad (pop. 5.7 million) is humming with activity. With parental awareness about the importance of professionally administered ECCE within the city’s middle and upper middle classes rising daily, a new tribe of edupreneurs have stepped forward to meet the demand for contemporary — proprietary and franchised — English-medium preschools in the commercial capital of the western seaboard state of Gujarat (pop. 69 million). Moreover, with the state’s BJP government having ill-advisedly enacted the Gujarat Self-Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017 which caps annual school fees at Rs.30,000, edupreneurs are opting to invest in early childhood education as it offers freedom from government interference. Consequently, the number of preschools — proprietary and franchised — ranked in the EW Ahmedabad league table has risen from 26 in 2017-18 to 34 in 2019-20 with ten new pre-primaries debuting this year. And uniquely, the city is emerging as the hub of several homegrown franchisor preschool chains including Kalorex, Shanti Juniors and Rangoli which are signing up franchisees statewide as well as in neighbouring Rajasthan and Maharashtra. For instance, Rangoli has 75-plus franchised preschools in Gujarat and Maharashtra and Shanti Juniors has 350 in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Bihar and Tamil Nadu. To rate and rank the textile city’s most admired preschools in the proprietary and franchised categories in 2019-20, the Delhi-based research company Centre for Forecasting and Research (C fore) interviewed 511 parents with at least one preschool-going child and 67 ECCE educators in Ahmedabad. PROPRIETARY PRESCHOOLS Although the 2019-20 league table of Ahmedabad’s best proprietary preschools has been shaken up, the 578 sample respondents have reaffirmed Redbricks Early Years Centre, Satellite (estb.2009) as the city’s #1 pre-primary for the fourth year in succession with top scores on nine of the ten parameters of ECCE excellence including teacher competence, professional development, innovative teaching and leadership. Vedant International Preschool, Maninagar is promoted to #2 (#4 in 2018) while Olive Green Kids School, Navarangpura (2) and Rising Kids Preschool, Bapunagar (3) are jointly ranked #3. The previously unranked Satellite School for Children has made an impressive debut at #4 followed by Bodakdev School for Children, which has retained its #5 rank jointly with the previously unranked Toddler’s Den, Bodakdev. “It is a great achievement for Redbricks to be ranked #1 by this year’s informed sample respondents as well. Our top scores on nine of ten parameters is the outcome of our adherence to our core principle — fulfilling young children’s needs in a developmentally appropriate manner. Since inception, a sharp focus on implementing age-appropriate ECCE pedagogies has helped us achieve excellence. This year, we organised two Reggio-inspired exhibitions displaying children’s projects in public art galleries in Ahmedabad, which received rave reviews from a stream of visitors. I believe these…
