Following several brand projection initiatives The Doon School, Dehradun has risen in the public esteem and stormed back to be ranked #1 on 12 of the 14 parameters of school education excellence.

Perhaps stung by its dethronement from its usual position as India’s #1 all-boys legacy boarding school last year, the leadership and management of The Doon School, Dehradun (TDS, estb. 1935) initiated several high-profile campaigns including a national cricket coaching camp with the Marylebone Cricket Club, UK, introduced a Summer at Doon Leadership programme and convened press conferences in south India to attract student applications in the interests of student body diversity, among other outreach programmes. The outcome of these institutional brand projection initiatives is that TDS has risen in the public esteem and stormed back to be rated #1 on 12 of the 14 parameters of school education excellence to head the national league table in this category, relegating Bishop Cotton School, Shimla, top-ranked in 2014, to second spot.

Naturally, I am delighted that we have re-established the consistent perception that TDS is India’s best boys’ residential school. We had set out to reinvent the legacy boarding school in India in our Development Plan 2010-2020, so it is gratifying to see this initiative is being positively received. But we are also determined to make our mark outside India. As an IBO (Geneva)-affiliated school, through our membership of important international educational associations, and with our growing global reputation for social and community service, we are also making a name for TDS on the world educational map, says Peter Mclaughlin, an alum of the London School of Economics and former principal of the British International School, Cairo (Egypt) who was appointed headmaster of TDS in 2009 after a global search. Affiliated with the CIE (UK), CISCE (Delhi) and IBO (Geneva) examination boards, TDS has 520 students mentored by 73 teachers on its muster rolls.

Although last year’s top-ranked all-boys Bishop Cotton School, Shimla has been obliged to trade ranks with The Doon School this year, Roy Robinson, the cheerful headmaster of this vintage boarding school (estb. 1859), is unfazed. It’s always easier to get to the top than remain there. Now we have a goal to work towards. But in this year’s league table there is some cause for comfort. BCS has retained its top-ranking under the parameter of leadership and management quality and is ranked second for sports education, an important focus area for us. The academic profile of the school is also improving. The 85 percent average of our boys in the class XII ISC exam is the highest ever in the 156-year history of the school, says Robinson.

The Top 5 table of the legacy boys boarding schools category is completed by Welham Boys, Dehradun, which has been steadily advancing in the annual league tables to be ranked #3 cf. #5 last year; Mayo College, Ajmer also ranked #3 (4); the Scindia School, Gwalior and Sarala Birla Academy, Bangalore which has impressively moved up from #8 in 2014 to #5 this year.

The detailed evidence on which Welham Boys’ improved ranking is based is a cause for elation within our entire school community. Ours is a school with a legacy and well-established traditions, and its continuously rising ranking is reassurance that our institution’s improvement efforts are in the right direction. I particularly want to thank EducationWorld for supplementing the perceptual academic reputation parameter with factual CISCE/CBSE class XII results. The public perception that Welham Boys is the country’s #1 boys boarding school is now supported by factual data, says Gunmeet Bindra, an alumna of the Delhi School of Economics and Calcutta University, founder-head of two Delhi Public Schools (Jallandhar and Kanpur) and former principal of the Vidya Devi Jindal School, Hisar (2007-11), who was appointed the first woman principal of a legacy boys boarding school in India when she took charge at Welham Boys in 2011. Currently, this CBSE-affiliated class IV-XII school has an enrolment of 576 students mentored by 62 teachers.

Growing public preference for liberal, culturally-rooted K-12 education within 21st century India’s SECA middle class, which is plainly manifested in the co-ed boarding schools category, is also beginning to impact the boys boarding schools league table dominated by vintage pre-independence British-inspired public and military schools. This is indicated by the impressive debut at #13 of the Bhaktivedanta Gurukula & International School, Vrindavan (BGIS) followed by the Atmiya Vidya Mandir School, Surat which has improved its ranking from #18 in 2014 to #14 in this year™s league table of 25 of the country’s most well-reputed all-boys boarding schools.

Promoted by the Mayapur (West Bengal)-based globe-girdling International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), the class II-XII BGIS was established way back in 1975 but was a traditional gurukula until 2003 when the ISKCON management took the decision to affiliate it with the Delhi-based CISCE examination board.

I am very pleased and encouraged that our school and the type of education ” contemporary academics combined with strong emphasis on cultural and values education ” has been awarded recognition by the academic and parents communities. While we believe that children need modern academic learning, we also believe that values education built upon our Vedic cultural traditions is of prime importance in an increasingly values-less and materialistic society, says Harikeshwar (who uses only one name), an alumnus of IIT-Kanpur and former financial software designer and engineer at Goldman Sachs, New York and Singapore, who was appointed principal of BGIS early this year.

Among the other all-boys legacy boarding schools which have improved their rankings this year are St. George’s College, Mussoorie, from #14 in 2014 to #8 this year; Birla Vidya Mandir (#10 to 9); Atmiya Vidya Mandir, Surat (#18 to 14); Rashtriya Military School, Chail (#16 to 15) and Guru Nanak Fifth Centenary School (Boys), Mussoorie debuting at #17.

To view EW India Boys Boarding Schools Rankings 2015 visit www.educationworld.in/rank-school/all-cities/boarding-school/boys/2015.html