Responding to feedback and the expert advice of Raymond Ravaglia, Director of the US-based education research firm Launchpad Rankings LLC, EW presents a new category of cluster ranked day schools consistently high ranked under critical parameters of primary-secondary education excellence

Inventure Academy’s Nooraine Fazal (centre right): equitable refreshing initiative

Introduced in 2007, the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR) has since evolved into the world’s most comprehensive and largest annual school rankings survey.

Uninterruptedly for the past 18 years we have been rating the country’s most well-known schools under 14 parameters of education excellence (academic reputation, teacher welfare and development, leadership, infrastructure, sports education, curriculum and pedagogy etc) and ranking them in three main (day, boarding and international) and 14 sub-categories (to eliminate apples with oranges type comparisons). During this period, the annual EWISR has earned the reputation of the gold standard of school rankings. True, other individuals and institutions have photo-copied EWISR. We welcome imitation as flattery.

Nevertheless although the annual EWISR has established a national — perhaps international — reputation, we have not been content to rest on our oars. Every year we have chopped and changed the mix and/or size of our sample respondents database and replaced old, outdated parameters with new ones (curriculum & pedagogy, mental & emotional well-being services). Moreover to encourage institutional reform and upgradation of low-profile schools in tier I and II towns ignored by mass media, we have instituted the EW Jury Rankings under which schools are third party or self-nominated for rating and ranking by juries of knowledgeable educationists.

Subsequently, all high ranked schools from across the country are invited to the annual three-day EWISR Awards Nite — India’s largest conclave of school leaders (promoters, principals, representatives) — to be felicitated and celebrated with trophies, certificates, encomiums and provided networking opportunities to share best teaching-learning practices.

This year responding to feedback that school education stakeholders and EW readers were experiencing a sense of déjà vu with some schools routinely topping EWISR year after year, on the advice of Raymond Ravaglia, a Stanford University alum and former Dean and Director of Stanford University Pre-Collegiate Studies and Founder of the Stanford Online High School, who is currently Director of US-based education research firm Launchpad Rankings LLC, your editors have created 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.

“Numerical scores suggest overly precise distinctions between schools that in practice offer similar high quality education experience, not justified by empirical data. When the quality of education provided by schools is too close to call, it’s advisable to cluster rank them and segregate them by star point rankings reflecting minor decimal point differences. This rankings innovation acknowledges that selecting suitable schools isn’t about fine-grained metrics but about understanding the overall quality, focus and educational environments that excellent schools provide,” explains Ravaglia.

In light of this recommendation and interest of improving the quality and precision as also to enthuse excellent schools routinely ranked low because of dominance of the EW league tables by institutions now promoted to the Ivy League category, in EWISR 2025-26, 12 day schools and five day-cum-boarding schools have been elevated into the new Ivy League category. The number of boarding and international schools elevated to Ivy League status will be notified next month in Part-II of EWISR 2025-26.

Vasant Valley’s Sharmila Bakshi: cause and effect top scores

This diligent restructuring of the annual EWISR on expert advice is welcomed by leaders of routinely top-ranked schools. “The initiative to group repeatedly top-ranked day schools hitherto separated by one or two points in previous EW league tables is an equitable and refreshing initiative. It’s a good idea to award routinely top-ranked schools a common #1 rank and introduce the star points system to identify their minor advantages. This is likely to satisfy Ivy League school leaders while continuing to stimulate them to strive to improve in areas where they are perceived to be relatively weak,” says Nooraine Fazal, co-founder, CEO and managing trustee of the Inventure Academy, Bangalore (estb.2005). Ranked India’s #6 co-ed day school in 2020- 2021, #4 in 2022, #3 in 2023 and #1 last year, this year’s 9,500 sample respondents have awarded Inventure #1 rank with 5-stars.

Unsurprisingly, Fazal is delighted that Inventure has been elevated to the select Ivy League category, awarded 5-star status as also the highest total score. “I am thrilled that your sample respondents have ranked us highest countrywide in the new Ivy League table of day schools. I believe this is attributable to our Fit-for-Life curriculum which provides optimal balance between academic, sports and co-curricular education. The highest scores awarded to Inventure under the parameters of academic reputation, sports education and curriculum & pedagogy endorses this belief. I am also satisfied with the top scores awarded to us under the parameters of parental involvement, infrastructure and mental and emotional well-being services. This indicates that our children are provided joyful education in a wholly supportive environment with full parental support,” says Fazal, an alumna of Mount Carmel College, Bangalore and Boston University who acquired valuable business and administration experience serving with the Reuters Group in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sydney and Hong Kong prior to returning to Bangalore and co-founding Inventure Academy in 2005. Currently this blue-chip CISCE (Delhi) and Cambridge International (UK) affiliated co-ed day school sited on a fully-equipped 37-acre campus in Whitefield, Bangalore, has 1,400 students mentored by 250 highly trained teachers on its muster rolls.

Twelve day schools from across the country have been elevated to Ivy League status in EWISR 2025-26 (see table p.44). Most of them are co-ed institutions. But the inaugural Ivy League Day schools league table also includes two all-girls schools (J.B. Petit High, Mumbai and Nasr School, Hyderabad) and the all-boys Birla High, Moira Street, Kolkata. Unsurprisingly, Delhi’s Vasant Valley School promoted by media tycoon Aroon Purie in 1990, and the vintage Cathedral & John Connon School, Mumbai (estb.1860) have also been promoted to the Ivy League category with 5 star status.

Sharmila Bakshi, a political science graduate of Delhi’s top-ranked Lady Shri Ram College and Jawaharlal Nehru University who signed up with Vasant Valley School, Delhi (VVS) in 2001 after brief stints in academia and government, is delighted by VVS’ elevation into the select Ivy League category of day schools. She is especially satisfied with the top scores awarded to VVS on the “cause-and-effect parameters” of teacher welfare and development, faculty competence and academic reputation.

“I am most pleased with our top score under the teacher welfare and development parameter because we accord highest importance to this obligation. For over a decade we have been running a weekly Return to School programme for teachers to upgrade their skills and learn about best practices worldwide. Happy teachers learning continuously is the prime cause of our highest score under individual attention to students, children’s excellent learning outcomes, and high scores under academic reputation and mental and emotional development services. I’m also pleased with our top score under the parameter of co-curricular education and internationalism. In VVS the education experience is divided into academic and non-academic with co-curricular and sports education integrated into non-academic learning which is accorded equal priority. Our prime objective is children deriving holistic education and learning joyfully. Our top scores under all these important parameters as reflected in your survey, is reassuring endorsement that we are moving in the right direction,” says Bakshi, appointed principal earlier this year. Currently the CBSE-affiliated VVS has 1,465 children mentored by 325 teachers on its muster rolls. 

CHIREC’s Vanapalli Katyayini: ecosystem validation

Although she is non-committal about the sagacity of creating a new Ivy League category of repeatedly high-ranked schools, Vanapalli Katyayini, Principal of the CHIREC International School, Hyderabad routinely ranked among The Top 10 nationally, is glad about the combination of parameters under which CHIREC has received high scores.

“The distinguishing characteristic of CHIREC is our culture of care with great emphasis on students’ social and emotional well-being. Therefore our elevation to the select  club of Ivy League schools and high scores under the parameters of curriculum and pedagogy, co-curricular education, individual attention to students and mental and emotional well-being services is validation of our teaching-learning ecosystem and supportive of our tag line — ‘CHIREC gives chance to children’,” says Katyayini, a clothing and textiles postgrad of the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad, who signed with CHIREC in 2004 after a teaching stint at her alma mater (1996-2004) and was  appointed principal in 2023. Currently the CBSE, Cambridge International and IB (Geneva)-affiliated CHIREC has an aggregate enrolment of 6,253 students mentored by 825 faculty spread across four campuses in Hyderabad. 

The league table of day schools elevated to Ivy League status comprises 12 highly-reputed schools from across the country with older, well-established institutions dominating. They include the vintage Cathedral & John Connon School, Mumbai (estb.1860); J.B. Petit High School for Girls, Mumbai (1860); Heritage School, Kolkata (2001); the Sir Padampat Singhania Education Centre, Kanpur (1982) and NASR School, Hyderabad (1965).

However the inaugural league table of Ivy League day schools also includes the new-age Heritage Xperiential School, Gurugram (estb.2003), and Gurukul, The School Ghaziabad. Although these excellent, globally comparable schools are ranked inter se by way of star ratings and grade points, it’s pertinent to note that they are all ranked #1 and these differentiation markers are insignificant, awarded to encourage them to continue to strive for betterment and excellence.

The inaugural Ivy League day schools league table comprises 12 highly-reputed schools from across the country with older, well-established institutions dominating