Promoters and managements of day-cum-boarding schools deserve special appreciation for making the additional investment to accommodate out-of-town students who but for this consideration would be denied high quality primary-secondary education Among the various categories of primary-secondaries ranked in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (estb.2007), day-cum-boarding schools occupy a special place. The approximately 100 schools that are sufficiently well-reputed to be included in the national league table of India’s best day-cum-boarding schools are a cut above top-ranked day schools which are accessible only to residents of the city in which they are sited. On the other hand, day-cum-boarding schools make high-quality education accessible to children from other educationally under-served geographies. Their promoters and managements deserve special appreciation of the public for making additional investment in hostels and dormitories to accommodate out-of-town students who but for this consideration, would be denied high-quality primary-secondary education. Therefore, their multiplication should be encouraged by government policies and excellent day schools should be incentivised to transform into day-cum-boarding institutions which would confer the additional benefit of student body diversity upon them. Presumably because all schools countrywide were under an 18-month lockdown — unprecedented in living memory — for fear of Covid-19 infection, during which schools ranked in this survey resorted to providing online classes, there are only marginal changes in the EW league tables of the country’s most admired day-cum-boarding schools. At top table, the Sai International School, Bhubaneswar, DPS, R.K. Puram, Delhi, Emerald Heights, Indore, Modern School, Barakhamba Road, Delhi, Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet, Greenwood High, Bengaluru, Pallikoodam School, Kottayam (Kerala), DPS, Noida and Sanskaar Valley, Bhopal have all retained their Top 5 2020-21 rankings with few rearrangements of seating. Also read: SAI International School, Bhubaneswar Delhi Pubic School, RK Puram, New Delhi Jointly ranked #5 with DPS, Noida and Sanskaar Valley, Bhopal, this year is DPS, Bhadbhada Road Bhopal promoted from #7 last year. That the country’s Top 5 day-cum-boarding schools are spread across seven states of the Indian Union is revealing testimony that excellent primary-secondary education is no longer confined to the industrially advanced states and metropolitan cities. As usual, the Top 10 table is dominated by owned and licensed schools of the Delhi Public Schools Society (estb.1949) promoted by senior public servants 72 years ago, with eight DPS schools — the majority sited in Delhi NCR — awarded seats at the Top 10 table. Yet one wonders to what extent the sample respondents quizzed for the EWISR were impressed by the high-ranked DPS institutions, and the brand rub-off impact of the DPS Society which has established 222 owned and franchised schools in India and abroad. As at top table, further down the Top 10 table as well, there is a minor readjustment of seating. Among the schools that have improved their ranking are Neerja Modi School, Jaipur, The Mann School, Delhi and Ebenezer International School, Bengaluru which is co-ranked #9 with Daly College, Indore, moved from the co-ed boarding schools to this category because the number of day scholars by far…
