The Doon School, establised 83 years ago as a nationalist riposte to starchy anglicised boarding schools which were reluctant to admit native students, has captured the imagination of post-independence India’s elite classes Although it maintains an obstinately low public profile and continuously flies below radar, The Doon School, Dehradun (TDS, estb.1935) enjoys a rock-solid reputation for dispensing all-round primary-secondary education within the community of knowledgeable monitors of India’s education scene in which the distance between the best private and government schools is as wide as the chasm between Lazarus nestling in Abraham’s bosom and Dives burning in the fires of hell. Therefore it’s unsurprising that for the sixth year in succession, the CISCE and Cambridge Assessment International Education (UK)-affiliated TDS is voted India’s #1 all-boys boarding school by a wide margin by this year’s knowledgeable 4,729 sample respondents in north India. Rated #1 on 13 of the 14 parameters of school education excellence including teacher competence, teacher welfare and development and academic reputation, TDS, establised 83 years ago as a nationalist riposte to starchy anglicised boarding schools which were reluctant to admit native students, has captured the imagination of post-independence India’s elite and upper middle class households. “Our focus in TDS and my ambition as a headmaster, is to concentrate on continuous improvement in teaching, learning and pastoral care and for the school to become the most exciting place to work and study in the country. And far from being a low-profile institution we are quite active in using social media channels and corporate magazines to tell the public about the very generous financial scholarships we provide to children from economically weaker sections of society as also for children of armed forces personnel. These things are well known within the educators and teachers fraternity and account for TDS’ high ranking in your annual survey,” says Matthew Raggett, an alumnus of Newcastle (UK) and Charles Stuart (Australia) universities and former principal of the Leipzig International School, Germany, who was appointed principal two years ago after his predecessor Dr. Peter McLaughlin, who served two five-year terms as headmaster resigned in 2015. While the class VI-XII TDS has been comfortably seated at the head of the all-boys boarding schools for the past eight years and is ranked #1 on the parameters of academic reputation, teacher welfare and development, and internationalism across all boarding schools (co-ed, boys and girls — see pg. 268), there is a re-arrangement of seating at the Top 5 table. Welham Boys, Dehradun is promoted to #2, a position it shares with Scindia School, Gwalior, while the vintage Bishop Cotton School, Shimla (estb. 1859) is ranked #3 this year. Dr. Gunmeet Bindra, the first woman principal of a top-ranked all-boys boarding school — Welham Boys, Dehradun (estb. 1937) — is appreciative that this year’s sample respondents have promoted this 61-year class IV-XII CBSE-affiliated school to #2 , although it shares this ranking with the equally venerated Scindia School, Gwalior. She attributes Welham Boy’s consistent Top 3 ranking to its management’s…
