India’s Top Day Schools 2008

For the purposes of this survey, C fore pollsters defined day schools as K-12 institutions in which the majority of students are day-scholars. Therefore the confusion created by schools such as Bishop Cotton, Bangalore and Loreto Convent, Darjeeling, which once upon a time were predominantly boarding schools but in which the number of boarders have since shrunk to insignificance, have now been classified as day schools. Moreover it’s important to bear in mind that day schools in particular, tend to have local or parochial than national reputations. Therefore the regional rankings of day schools are perhaps a more accurate indicator of their reputation than their position in national league tableas, though from the point of view of attracting the best teachers countrywide, it doesn’t hurt to have a high rank in the national league table.

North India

Perhaps the most dramatic change in the EW Schools Survey 2008 is reflected in the northern region league table which has also churned the national league table (see p.64). The recast SECA respondents base has overwhelmingly voted Delhi’s CISCE-affiliated K-12 The Shri Ram School, Delhi as the most respected school in the north, with an aggregate score of 1,082 across the 12 parameters of institutional evaluation. This aggregate is higher than of day schools topping the southern, eastern and western lists, making The Shri Ram School (estb. 1988) the country’s best regarded day school as well.

“Our teachers, students and staff are delighted to learn that TSRS has been ranked north India’s and indeed India’s most respected day school. I am particularly pleased with the high rating of TSRS on the parameters of faculty competence, individual attention to students and quality of management. The survey validates our priorities and our values. For this, much of the credit must be given to our chairperson Mrs. Manju Bharat Ram and our director of school, Mark Parkinson, who have shaped our vision and priorities,” says Manika Sharma, principal of TSRS.

Another novelty of this year’s zonal and national league tables is that several well-reputed but low-profile day schools, which didn’t figure at all in the EW 2007 zonal ranking, have been given high ratings by the reconstituted respondents base. Among them: Delhi’s Sanskriti (ranked 2nd in the north), Mother’s International (3rd), Springdales (4th) and Vasant Valley and Sardar Patel (5th) schools. Another surprise entrant in to the Top 10 northern region ranking is the Sacred Heart Public School (6th), Modern School (7th) and DPS, Vasant Kunj, Delhi (9th).

Yet perhaps the most notable outcome of the EW Schools Survey 2008, is the dramatic relegation of Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram, and Delhi Public School, Mathura Road (both in Delhi) which were ranked 1st and 3rd regionally and nationally across all categories last year, to less exalted positions. Although DPS, R.K. Puram has been voted the 3rd most respected day school in the north (jointly with Mother’s International), DPS, Mathura Road’s regional ranking has plunged to No.16. Moreover on the national league table, the rankings of these DPS schools highly fancied by SECB respondents, has plunged to 16 and 47 respectively.

Nevertheless the reputation of DPS, R.K. Puram for academic rigour aka examinations orientation, remains intact. On the parameter of ‘academic reputation’, DPS R.K. Puram received a score of 91, the highest in the northern region, way above the top-ranked The Shri Ram School’s 77. But quite evidently SECA respondents don’t place as high a value on academic orientation as the predominantly SECB sample group constituted for last year’s survey.

Dismayed by the lower No. 3 rank in northern India and No.12 all-India ranking of DPS R.K. Puram this year, Shyama Chona, the high-profile principal declined to react to the EW Schools Survey 2008, notwithstanding the school being rated the highest countrywide on the parameter of academic reputation. According to Chona, DPS’ high rating on this parameter is “contradictory”, and indicative of a flawed polling methodology.

This perceptual change in the SECA peer group in favour of holistic rather than intensively academic school education is also reflected in the relatively lower rankings of South Point School, Kolkata (37); City Montessori School, Lucknow (58) and St. Kabir’s, Ahmedabad (71) on the master league table of 2008.

South India

Bishop Cotton Boys School tops the list of 67-day schools ranked in peninsular India in the EW Schools Survey 2008. Surprisingly last year, BCBS didn’t make it into the top 10 southern list because it was perceived as a boarding school in which group it ranked second. However last year Bishop Cotton Girls was ranked as the second most respected day school in the south. Such anomalies have been eliminated in the 2008 ranking by classifying both these vintage institutions as day schools, given that today they have relatively few boarders. And unsurprisingly both these schools have been ranked high by the newly-constituted, more knowledgeable respondents base.

“It is a humbling moment for the school fraternity to be rated the best day school in South India and among the top 10 countrywide, more so when our name was conspicuously absent in the 2007 survey conducted by Education-World. At a deeper level of our understanding, it is a divine affirmation of the sincere hard work and effort put in by every faculty member of the school. The Cottonian spirit of excellence nurtured and refined over the past 143 years dwells in the hearts and minds of our committed teachers and manifests itself in their faith and love for the uniqueness of every child,” says Col. (Retd) John Ellis, principal of Bishop Cotton Boys, Bangalore (estb. 1865).

Surprisingly, Bangalore’s domination of the list of best peninsular day schools is challenged by Hyderabad rather than Chennai. The port city has only three schools in the top 15 southern day schools (DAV Boys ranked fourth, Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, Nungambakkam ranked tenth and SBOA Annanagar, 15th). Bangalore has seven (including Ryan International, Whitefield ranked 12th) and Hyderabad five, topped by the Gitanjali School. Nevertheless, while Hyderabad has experienced a churn in rankings, Chennai’s DAV Boys and PSBB have been ranked marginally higher in the EW 2008 survey by virtue of being rated highly on the parameter of faculty competence.

“I’m very pleased that DAV Boys has improved its ranking in the south zone and is also ranked among the Top 10 day schools in India. I believe this is because there’s growing awareness of our emphasis on providing holistic education for comprehensive development of our students, without losing our focus on academic excellence,” says Dr C. Satish principal of DAV Boys, Chennai which is ranked second countrywide on the parameter of academic reputation.

A surprise inclusion in the top 10 ranking of southern region day schools this year is the CISCE-affiliated K-12 Gitanjali School, Hyderabad (estb.1985) which was rated third in the south and a commendable seventh all-India. The school was rated No.1 in the south on the parameter of individual attention to students and among the top three on the vital parameters of faculty competence and quality of leadership/management. “Our entire community — parents, teachers, management and students are proud of the high ratings the school has received from the public. We were aware that we had focused on the right development priorities. The EW survey ratings confirm that we are moving in the right direction,” says Gita Karan, principal of this dark horse school which has risen high in the public esteem.

Western Region

The most notable feature of the western region rankings is the inclusion in the league tables of the Bombay Scottish and Cathedral and John Connon schools, which were conspicuous omissions in the 2007 tables, presumably because of the sample respondents being dominated by SECB households, for whom these elite schools are out of reach. Nevertheless, the inversion of the popular ranking in favour of Bombay Scottish which is perceived to have better teachers, leadership/management, and greater parental involvement, is likely to surprise many citizens of the country’s commercial capital.

“The top-ranking — first among day schools in the western region and third all-India — given by this knowledgeable respondents base to Bombay Scottish has come as a pleasant surprise to our staff and students given the change in demographic profile the school has experienced in recent years. It’s important to appreciate that we started as an orphanage school and recently we have repositioned ourselves as a middle-class school accessible to all. We are particularly encouraged by the high ratings the school has received on the parameters of faculty competence and individual attention to students, which is reflective of our child-centric ethos. We see ourselves as a values-driven school. We believe that if we focus on good values, excellent holistic education will become a natural consequence,” says Dr D.P.N. Prasad, principal of western India’s — and Mumbai’s — most respected day school.

Another feature of the western region league table is the high rank awarded by regional respondents to the relatively new (estb.2005) Ryan International School, Goregaon. Despite the inclusion of well-established vintage schools (Bombay Scottish, Cathedral, Campion and St. Xavier’s), RIS, Goregaon which was ranked second in the western region in 2007 (after St. Kabirs, Ahmedabad) continues to command high esteem even within the SECA representative sample group. Indeed RGI (Ryan Group of Institutions) schools have been highly ranked across three regions with RIS, Goregaon ranked fifth in the west; RIS, Vasant Kunj, Delhi ranked 14th in the north; and RIS, Whitefield, Bangalore ranked 12th in the south. Unsurprisingly in the composite league table, RIS, Goregaon is ranked 21 countrywide, which is commendable for a relatively new entrant into the K-12 education sector.

Comments Mme Grace Pinto, the promoter-managing director of the RGI chain of 114 schools across India: “In the EW Schools Survey 2008, RGI is the only group to have highly ranked schools in three regions countrywide. Moreover from the survey it is clear that RGI schools provide quality education to children in several household income categories. This is highly comforting because it indicates that the public is aware of our mission to provide quality education at affordable prices to children in all sections of society. We are very encouraged that RIS, Goregaon which is only three years old is competitively ranked fifth in the western region against much older schools.”

Among the other highlights pertaining to the western region of the EW Schools Survey 2008, is the golden opinions that the Arya Vidya Mandir and Hiranandani Foundation schools have received with both included in the list of top 10. However, St. Kabir’s, Ahmedabad which was top-ranked in last year’s survey has been relegated to No. 13 this year.

Eastern Region

The highlight of the EW Schools Survey 2008 of day schools in the eastern region is the rise in the regional league tables of the La Martiniere Boys and Girls schools to the two top spots. Quite obviously the new SECA sample base reconstituted by C fore, rates these vintage schools which scored their highest points in faculty competence and quality of alumni as better than South Point, Kolkata which the 2007 respondents base ranked first mainly on the basis of its academic reputation. Significantly, even in this year’s survey, South Point is ranked numero uno in the eastern region on the parameter of academic reputation. But quite evidently the new respondents’ sample believes that education should transcend mere academic excellence. The La Mart Schools outstrip South Point on other critical parameters such as faculty competence, individual attention (teacher-pupil ratio) and quality of leadership.

“We are very pleased to learn that we have been ranked the No.1 day school in eastern India and second all-India. This surely is the result of the hard work put in by every section of the school, including the board of governors, teachers, staff and above all, boys over several generations, which is reflected in the top ranking nationally we have received on the parameter of quality of alumni. But while we are proud of our high rankings, we are well aware that now the challenge is to stay at the top,” says Sunirmal Chakravarthi principal of La Mart, Boys.

Another notable feature of this year’s eastern zone day school ranking is the inclusion of St. Xavier’s Collegiate School, Kolkata which is ranked a high third after the two La Mart schools. Unsurprisingly St. Xavier’s Collegiate, which is the alma mater of former India cricket captain and star batsman Sourav Ganguly, is ranked the eastern region’s top school on the parameter of the excellent sports education it offers students.

Unsurprisingly, government schools — especially state government schools notorious for the medium of instruction muddles, pathetic infrastructure, crowded classrooms and poor quality teachers — are not even peripheral dots on the radar screens of the SECA respondents base. However some of the 952 Central government promoted Kendriya Vidyalaya schools — KV, Andrews Ganj, Delhi; and the KVs of IIT-Mumbai and IIT-Madras — have made it into the Top 50 ranks in the zonal league tables. None of the institutions of the other well-reputed 573-strong chain of Central government schools — the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas — are ranked or rated because they are rural boarding schools beyond the ken of the urban-centric sample respondents base.

Download Day Schools Zonal League Tables

Download Parameters of Excellence: India’s top 10 day schools

Download India’s Best Day Schools League Table