The inaugural 2025-26 national table of Ivy League international day schools — the glamour section of EWISR — comprises four routinely top-ranked institutions

DAIS’ chairperson Nita Ambani: “teachers are at the very heart of DAIS”

Though over the past 18 years since they were instituted in 2007, the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR) has evolved into the world’s largest and most comprehensive school rankings survey, the evolution process is continuous. The mix and/or size of our sample respondents database has changed and outdated parameters have been replaced with new (curriculum & pedagogy, mental & emotional well-being services). And, to encourage schools to excel beyond EWISR’s 14 parameters of school excellence, we have instituted the EW Jury Rankings.

Moreover responding to intelligent feedback that school education stakeholders and EW readers were experiencing deja vu with some schools routinely topping EWISR year after year, in consultation with Raymond Ravaglia, a Stanford University alum and former Dean and Director of Stanford University Pre-Collegiate Studies, and currently Director of US-based education research firm Launchpad Rankings LLC, your editors have ideated a new super nova category of cluster-ranked schools. Institutions repeatedly high-ranked under critical parameters of school education excellence including teacher welfare and development, faculty competence, academic reputation, co-curricular and sports education, have been elevated to a new Ivy League category (for full methodology details see p.42).

The inaugural 2025-26 national table of Ivy League international day schools — the glamour section of EWISR — comprises four routinely top-ranked institutions — Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Oberoi International School, Aditya Birla World Academy (all sited in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India) and The Riverside School, Ahmedabad. Although these globally comparable international schools are all ranked India #1, they are differentiated by the award of stars (1-5) and decimal points to prompt continuous improvement.

Unsurprisingly, within this newly introduced category of Ivy League international day schools, Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai (DAIS, estb.2003) — ranked India’s #1 international day school in EWISR for the past 13 years — is top ranked with 5 stars with highest total score. Moreover, this Cambridge and IB-affiliated school — promoted by the family of legendary business leader Dhirubhai Ambani (1932-2002), founder-chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd, India’s most respected, efficient and valuable company (annual revenue: Rs.10.7 lakh crore) — has been awarded top scores under ten of 15 parameters of school excellence including academic reputation, teacher competence, curriculum and pedagogy, mental and emotional well-being services and quality of alumni. Currently, DAIS has 1,171 students and 234 teachers on its muster rolls.

Riverside’s Kiran Bir Sethi: co-created curriculum

“To be elevated to the Ivy League category and ranked India #1 within this elite category is a matter of immense pride and joy to all of us at DAIS. It’s reaffirmation of our steadfast commitment to providing holistic education nurturing not only academic excellence, but also the character, creativity, and compassion of our students. While I am delighted that DAIS is awarded top scores under ten of the 15 parameters of excellence, I am especially pleased with our top scores for teacher welfare and development and teacher competence because teachers are the very heart of DAIS. That’s why we invest deeply in our teachers, empowering them with continuous professional development programs, global exposure, and innovative pedagogies. As a result they make our curriculum come alive and enable our students to learn enjoyably. This explains our top score under the mental and emotional well-being services parameter. To take this forward, this year we have introduced a comprehensive ‘Well-being Policy’ and ‘Pastoral Framework’ for our children. Dedicated counselling services and safeguarding practices, and close collaboration with parents has ensured that every child is supported not only in academics but also in her personal growth and well-being,” says Nita Ambani, founder-chairperson of DAIS and the Reliance Foundation (estb.2010), the philanthropic initiative of Reliance Industries.

The sole non-Mumbai international day school to be elevated to the new Ivy League category is Riverside, Ahmedabad, promoted in 2001 by education leader and disruptor Dr. Kiran Bir Sethi. Sethi is also promoter-ideator of the global Design for Change/I Can movement which has spread to 71 countries worldwide, and has earned international acclaim for pioneering design thinking-led curriculums.

“Ivy League represents a new benchmark of excellence and aspiration in K-12 education. That Riverside is elevated to this category is simultaneously humbling and inspiring. Our design-led curriculum develops content and character and ensures that all stakeholders — teachers, students, and parents — become active participants in co-creating the curriculum. We believe that every child will graduate not just with knowledge, but committed to global citizenship with an ‘I CAN’ mindset to build a more equitable world. From the very beginning, all our decisions have been rooted in the belief that every child is unique and must be seen, heard, and respected — as a person with voice, choice, and potential. Therefore, the award of high scores under the parameters of curriculum and pedagogy, individual attention to students, and emotional well-being services are very encouraging. They are the natural outcome of our philosophy in which knowledge is not delivered to children, but designed with and around them,” says Sethi.