Arguably, boarding schools are additionally nurturing for girl children because they offer more liberal and modern environments than conservative households in which girl children routinely suffer overt and covert gender discrimination Although gender-segregated education is going out of fashion worldwide, in India, a uniquely heterogeneous nation with citizens practicing almost all major religions, speaking 121 languages in 19,500 dialects thereof and observing widely divergent social interaction norms and traditions — including full veiling of women in some communities and castes — exclusive girls schools serve a positive nation-building purpose. But for such schools, millions of girl children would be deprived of vitally important primary-secondary education in a society in which female participation in the labour force is among the lowest worldwide. Low female participation is not in the national interest because during the past 74 years since independence, educated middle class women citizens have demonstrated equal capability and productivity with males in all vocations and walks of life. Therefore girls education plays a crucial role in our society, even if their household and societal norms are at variance with modernisation ideals. Arguably, boarding schools are additionally nurturing for girl children because they offer more liberal and modern environments than conservative households in which girl children routinely suffer overt and covert gender discrimination vis-à-vis male siblings. Moreover in boarding schools girls get greater opportunity to avail co-curricular (communication, music, dance, theatre) and sports education which are prerequisites of balanced, rounded K-12 education. Therefore, ab initio since the pioneer annual EducationWorld India School Rankings league tables were introduced in 2007, your editors have accorded equal, if not higher, importance to all-girls day and boarding schools by rating and ranking them inter se on the same parameters as boys and co-ed schools. Moreover despite gender segregated schools becoming passé around the world, in India the number of all-girls boarding schools has continued to grow modestly. Progressive, capital intensive greenfield girls boarding schools continue to be promoted, giving older, vintage institutions in this category stiff competition. Therefore seating arrangements at the Top 10 table of the country’s girls boarding schools tend to change every year. This year the Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior and the Welham Girls School, Dehradun, ranked first and second in 2020-21, have traded places at top table with the former co-ranked #2 with Mayo Girls, Ajmer which retains its last year’s #2 rank. They are followed by Mussoorie International, Uttarakhand at #3 (4), Hopetown Girls, Dehradun #4 (5) and Birla Balika Vidyapeeth, Pilani co-ranked #5 (6) with Ecole Globale International, Dehradun (3). It’s perhaps noteworthy that four of India’s six top-ranked girls boarding schools are sited in Dehradun. Beyond top table there is a rejig of the Top 10 table. Unison World School, Dehradun and Vidya Devi Jindal, Hissar have ceded ground while the newly-promoted Avasara Academy, Pune (estb. 2015) has risen to #8 (10). The Top 10 table is completed by Convent of Jesus & Mary, Mussoorie #9 (8) and Heritage Girls, Udaipur #10 (9). With Welham Girls School (WGS,…
