In the EW Chennai preschools 2019-20 league tables, 44 proprietary and 22 franchised pre-primaries are rated on 10 parameters of ECCE excellence by 662 parents with children in preschool and 72 principals/teachers based in Chennai. The port city of Chennai (pop. 9.8 million), the admin capital of the southern seaboard state of Tamil Nadu (pop. 72 million), has an ancient reputation for hosting high-quality education institutions. The city’s educationists and edupreneurs have always been quick to embrace innovative pedagogies and education philosophies from preschool to higher education. Therefore, it’s unsurprising that Chennai hosts an estimated 800 pre-primaries delivering professionally administered early childhood care and education (ECCE) and offering diverse pedagogies ranging from Montessori and Waldorf to Reggio Emilia. It’s also noteworthy that the incumbent AIADMK state government is in the process of designing a holistic draft syllabus for the state’s 150,000 preschools to give ECCE due importance and a place in the sun. In the EW Chennai preschools league tables, 44 sufficiently well-known proprietary and 22 franchised pre-primaries are featured and rated on 10 parameters of ECCE excellence — competence of teachers, infrastructure, innovative teaching, safety and hygiene, individual attention to students etc — by 662 parents with children in preschool and 72 principals/teachers based in Chennai. CHENNAI’S BEST PRESCHOOLS 2019-20 – OWNED/PROPRIETARY Chennai’s 2019-20 proprietary preschools league table has witnessed a mild churning. This year, Vruksha Montessori School, Alwarpet ranked #2 in 2018-19, has regained its prime position as the city’s #1 pre-primary followed by last year’s #1 ranked SEED, Adyar at #2 jointly with the Indus International Primary School, Neelankarai ranked #3 in 2018-19. Vels International Preschool, Neelankarai ranked #3 and Learning Tree, Adyar at #4 have both retained last year’s rankings and are obliged to share top table with Sprouts Montessori House of Children, Mylapore, ranked #5. Promoted by Jayashree Radhakrishnan in 2002, Vruksha Montessori School, Alwarpet (VMSA) is awarded top score in four of the ten parameters of ECCE excellence including teacher competence, individual attention to students, parental involvement and innovative teaching. Jayashree Radhakrishnan, principal of VMSA, attributes this 17-year-old preschool’s consistently high ranking to the management’s sharp focus on teacher training, welfare and development. “All our teachers are thoroughly trained in Montessori pedagogy and attend regular in-service workshops. We maintain a low 1:10 teacher-pupil ratio to enable individual attention to children. There’s growing awareness among parents and educators in the city that inducting youngest children into the education system requires special skills, and that in VMSA we practice them. That’s the explanation behind our consistently high ranking,” says Radhakrishnan, a Madras University and IMC Chennai alumna with considerable teaching and admin experience acquired at the Chettinad Vidhyashram and Abacus Montessori Schools in Chennai before she promoted VMSA. Currently, Chennai’s top-ranked proprietary preschool has 200 children nurtured by 20 teachers on its muster rolls. Adds Nandini Joshi, a commerce alumna of Pune University and Indian Montessori Centre (IMC), Chennai, and coordinator of VMSA, “We are delighted to be back at the top again and thank our teachers and…
