Offering pure, unpolluted air and excellent academic, co-curricular, sports and games facilities, while considerably reducing the stress and strain of latter-day parenting, co-ed boarding schools are experiencing a surge of popularity within upper middle and elite classes. For a nation taking its own time to march into modernity, co-ed schools in which male and girl children learn together and begin to practice gender egalitarianism and mutual respect in early age, are the way to go. These nation-building practices are best learned in co-ed boarding schools hosting children far removed from their home environments and providing neutral spaces to learn the virtues of independence and developing life skills of coexisting in peace and harmony with children from diverse cultures and backgrounds. In the new globalised world shrunk by trade, jet travel and the internet, lessons and life experiences that boarding schools — especially co-ed — provide children are invaluable. Particularly since the worst excesses of boarding schools such as cold showers, the lash, ‘gatings’ and prolonged isolation from family— commonplace in yesteryear boarding schools — are history. On the contrary, usually sited in pristine hills far from the country’s increasingly unlivable cities choked with road traffic and air pollution, they offer pure air and excellent academic, co-curricular, sports and games facilities, providing ideal environments for the healthy growth and development of children. Simultaneously, progressive boarding schools considerably reduce the stress and strains of latter day parenting. For all these reasons co-ed residential schools are experiencing a resurgence of popularity within the upper middle and elite classes of Indian society. In the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings, since 2022, boarding — indeed all schools — have been divided into two categories: newly established latter-day and ‘vintage legacy’ (over 90 years of age) to provide a level playing field and eliminate apples and oranges type evaluation. The parameters under which they are rated are common, except for ‘quality of alumni’ applicable only to vintage schools which have graduated large batches of students who have moved up corporate and other ladders. On the other hand, graduates of newly-promoted schools haven’t had sufficient time to make their mark. Against this backdrop of co-ed boarding schools becoming increasingly popular with the upper middle and elite households, it’s unsurprising that Capt. A.J. Singh, the cheerful Promoter-Director of Pinegrove School, Dharampur (PGD, estb.1991), is “highly elated” that this 30-year-old class VI-XII CBSE-affiliated school sited on two scenic campuses spread over 50 acres in the Himalayan foothills, is ranked India #1 for the second year in succession with highest scores under six of 14 parameters of school education excellence prescribed by EducationWorld. “All of us in PGD are elated that our school is re-ranked #1 countrywide in this competitive category by a new set of sample respondents. I believe our USP (unique sales proposition) is the sincerity with which all our stakeholders — teachers, parents and staff — work towards improving the happiness quotient of our children,” says Singh, an alum of the National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla, Indian Military…
