To enable the city’s middle class parents to select the most suitable preschools for their children, C fore field personnel interviewed 622 preschool parents and 75 principals/teachers in Chennai to rate and rank 55 proprietary and franchised pre-primaries

Households in the southern city of Chennai (pop. 9.8 million) have always placed a high premium on good quality K-12 and higher education. This industrial port city has a reputation for hosting well-reputed primary-secondary schools and tertiary education institutions in STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) subjects with Tamil Nadu (pop. 63 million) boasting the largest number of engineering colleges (526) in India. Therefore, it’s unsurprising that there’s rising parental demand for professionally administered early childhood care and education (ECCE) which prepares children for success in school and higher education.

To enable the city’s SEC (socio-economic category) ‘A’ parents to select the most suitable preschools for their children, field personnel of the Delhi-based market research and opinion polls company Centre for Forecasting and Research (C fore) interviewed 622 preschool parents and 75 principals/teachers in Chennai to rate and rank 55 sufficiently well-known proprietary and franchised pre-primaries under ten parameters of ECCE excellence including competence of teachers, infrastructure, innovative teaching, safety and hygiene, individual attention to students etc.

Owned/proprietary

Since 2016, SEED, Adyar and Vruksha Montessori, Alwarpet have been alternatively voted Chennai’s #1 proprietary pre-primaries. This year SEED, Adyar ranked #2 last year has displaced Vruksha Montessori as the city’s #1 pre-primary. Following Vruksha, ranked #2, is Indus Early Learning Centre, Neelankarai, which has retained its #3 rank for the third consecutive year. Affiliated Indus preschools in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune are also ranked among the Top 3 preschools in these cities.

Promoted in 2004 by Jaya Sastri, an ECCE alumna of Trenton College, New Jersey (USA) who acquired valuable teaching experience in Headstart, USA, before promoting SEED, Adyar 14 years ago, this globally benchmarked pre-primary is top-ranked on the parameters of innovative teaching, individual attention to students, leadership, parental involvement and special needs education across the proprietary and franchised categories.

“It’s great news that we have regained our #1 ranking. I believe parents greatly appreciate our commitment to providing a safe, nurturing and positive environment for children. That’s why they consistently rank SEED, Adyar among the top preschools of Chennai. In particular, parents highly value our 1:10 teacher-pupil ratio which enables teachers to devote individual attention to children and adapt lessons and activities for their specific learning and development needs. Moreover from last year, we have made special efforts to reach out and educate parents about positive parenting,” says Sastri who has successfully scaled and expanded SEED to a chain of 20 owned and 20 franchised preschools in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Eight SEED owned pre-primaries are ranked in the 35-strong league table of Chennai’s best proprietary preschools.

Yet the most dramatic rise in the 2018-19 league table is that of Vels International Preschool, Neelankarai (VIP-N, estb.2004). Ranked #1 in the franchised category in 2015 and 2016 as Vael’s Billabong High-Kangaroo Kids, its ranking plunged in the proprietary category after its divorce from franchisor Kangaroo Kids. Two years after it went solo, VIP-N has risen in public esteem to be ranked #3 jointly with Indus Early Learning Centre, Neelankarai in 2018-19.

“The Vels International team is elated to learn about our promotion to #3 in the prestigious EducationWorld preschool rankings. This is the outcome of our persistent efforts to update our curriculum and build teacher capacity after we transformed into a proprietary school in 2017. Over the past two years, we have recast and re-designed an innovative curriculum which promotes experiential learning, while investing heavily in training and upskilling our teachers. The unstinted support of parents and teachers in implementing our creative activities-based curriculum has helped us gain public recognition,” says Dr. Arthi K. Ganesh, an alumna of Madras and Lucknow universities and promoter of the proprietary Vels International Preschool which has an enrolment of 418 students and 61 teachers.

The great leap forward of Vels apart, there’s no major change in the Top 10 league table of Chennai’s 35 sufficiently well-known proprietary preschools. Learning Tree, Adyar, ranked #4, KiwiLearners, Neelankarai #5, Sprouts Montessori, Mylapore #6, Srishti Montessori School, Nungambakkam #7 and Bamboola, Raja Annamalai Puram #8 have all retained their 2017-18 ranking, while V Kids A Concept School, Mugappair (West), ranked #8 and Magnet Minds VVM Preschool, Anna Nagar #9 have exchanged their 2017 ranks. SEED Academy, Kottivakkam has improved its ranking from #13 in 2017 to #9 this year, and Formula Five Kids College, Thiruvottiyur High Road completes the Top 10 table.

Beyond the Top 10, several preschools have gained and lost ground with four previously unranked pre-primaries debuting in the EW Chennai Proprietary Preschool Rankings 2018-19.

Franchised preschools

For the Chennai-based SEED group of pre-primaries, the EW 2018-19 Preschool Rankings offers a double bonanza. Even as its owned SEED, Adyar has topped the proprietary category, its franchisee SEED School, Saligramam has been voted Chennai’s #1 franchised preschool for the second consecutive year. Moreover, five of its franchisees (three previously unranked) — SEED School, LIC, Madipakkam (#3), SEED School, Selaiyur (5) and SEED School, Pallikaranai (7), SEED School, Perumbakkam (8) and SEED School, Kotturpuram (10) — are ranked among the Top 10.

“It’s a great honour that your sample respondents have voted SEED, Saligramam Chennai’s #1 franchised preschool again. Evidently they are impressed by our commitment to a quality, age-appropriate, individualised curriculum, and dedicated teachers regularly trained in latest child development practices. A good share of the credit should also accrue to the SEED management for its excellent teacher training programme and ready-to-implement curriculum. As testified by our top score under the teacher competence and development and innovative teaching parameters, our experiential curriculum delivered by excellent teachers is highly appreciated,” says Rekha Mahindra, an alumna of London University and Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, who promoted SEED, Saligramam in 2014.

Following SEED, Saligramam at #2 is Podar Jumbo Kids, Thoraipakkam which was jointly ranked #1 with Saligramam last year. The Top 5 is completed by the previously unranked SEED School, LIC, Madipakkam at #3, Kangaroo Kids, Velachery at #4 (3 in 2017), and debutant SEED School, Selaiyur at #5.

However, Chitra Kannan, an alumna of Madras University with a diploma in child psychology from Maricopa Community College, Arizona, USA and founder of Kangaroo Kids, Velachery (KK-V, estb. 2010), is not satisfied with the verdict of Chennai’s 697 sample respondents. “It’s baffling why we have slipped to #4 this year as we have not compromised our high teaching-learning standards. Our child-friendly infrastructure, well-trained facilitators, teacher-student ratio of 1:6 in the play group and 1:8 in the nursery classes, high quality imported learning materials, and developmentally appropriate curriculum are the best in Chennai. However, it’s a consolation that we are ranked #1 under the parameter of special needs education — to which we pay special attention,” says Kannan, who has also promoted the franchised Billabong High International School, Palavakkam which started primary classes (I-III) this year.

A unique feature of Chennai’s franchised preschools league table is that unlike other metros, it is dominated by franchisees of local ECCE groups. For instance, the Chennai-based SEED has six franchisees represented in the 20-strong league table and Arise N Shine has five, while TIME Kids has two and Kindernest one. In contrast, national preschool chains such as the Mumbai-based Kangaroo Kids Education and Podar Jumbo Kids have two preschools each ranked in the Top 20.