Girls boarding schools are valuable national assets because they provide access to a wide range of co-curricular and sports education and greater personality development opportunities, than to girl children in day schools

Although gender-segregated schools are fading out of fashion as testified by the explosion of co-ed schools in all categories, in the world’s most diverse, multi-ethnic, multi-religious nation with millions of households governed by strict conservative mores that discourage if not prohibit, social interaction between boys and girl children from early age, gender segregated, especially, all-girls schools serve a useful social purpose.

They enable girl children who would otherwise be confined to home and hearth and denied high and higher secondary school education, to avail it. Arguably, girls boarding schools render greater service and opportunity to the cause of women’s emancipation than girls day schools inasmuch as boarders are provided egalitarian environments far removed from conservative home environments in which gender inequality is routinely practised. Besides, girls boarding schools offer students access to a wide range of co-curricular and sports opportunities which tend to be denied to girl children in day schools.

Therefore ever since the sui generis EducationWorld India School Rankings were introduced 15 years ago, girls (day and boarding) schools have been accorded as much importance as league tables ranking co-ed schools and other genre primary-secondary schools. Although your editors believe that multiplication and proliferation of co-ed schools, which encourage interaction between boys and girl children from early age, is the preferable option because they facilitate mindsets of mutual respect and gender egalitarianism during schooling years, girls boarding schools — institutions equipped with excellent contemporary infrastructure — which enable girl children to access co-curricular, life skills and sports education are valuable national assets. It’s a telling statistic of the high respect the best girls residential schools are accorded by informed society that aggregate scores of the Top 4 girls boarding schools in EWISR 2022-23 are greater than of the Top 4 boys boarding schools.

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Against this backdrop, there is a rearrangement of seating at the top table of girls boarding schools this year. At the very top, the newly refurbished Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior (SKV) ranked #2 in 2021-22 has exchanged places with Welham Girls School, Dehradun, and is ranked #1 this year. Ecole Globale International Girls School, Dehradun is promoted to #3 (from #5 in 2021-22) jointly with Mayo Girls College, Ajmer (2). Hopetown Girls, Dehradun at #4 and Birla Balika Vidyapeeth, Pilani #5 retain their ranks of 2021-22 at high table.

Further down the Top 10 table as well, there’s modest re-arrangement of the seating order. Vidya Devi Jindal School, Hisar (Haryana) is promoted to #6 (7); Heritage Girls, Udaipur to #8 (10) jointly with Vantage Girls School, Dehradun (11); Mody School, Lakshmangarh (Rajasthan) to #9 (12); Shigally Hills International, Dehradun to #10 (16) jointly with the previously unranked Doon Girls School, Dehradun.

“We are delighted to learn that SKV has regained its #1 pre-pandemic ranking. This is really good news as it comes at a time when we have just completed construction of our new academics block and given our scenic 35-acre campus a comprehensive makeover. Moreover, our academic results in the CBSE class XII school leaving board exam 2022 are excellent with our cohort of 70 girls averaging 92 percent and the topper averaging 98.8 percent,” says Nishi Misra, principal of the top-ranked Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior since 2010. A history and English postgrad of Allahabad University who acquired valuable teaching and admin experience in Sherwood College, Nainital and The Mayoor School, Bhopal prior to signing up with SKV 12 years ago.

Misra is especially enthused by the top scores awarded to this routinely high-ranked girls boarding school under the parameters of teacher welfare and development and academic reputation, although she is too modest to comment about SKV’s highest score under leadership. Currently, SKV has 500 girls and 56 teachers on its muster rolls.

Taran Jyot Singh, managing trustee of the Asian Educational Charitable Trust that administers the Ecole Globale International School, Dehradun (EGIS, estb.2012), is equally delighted with the promotion to national #3 that this year’s sample respondents have awarded the technologically advanced — “we are the first school countrywide to have equipped our students with i-pads in our very first year of operations” — EGIS in its tenth anniversary year.

“Because of our excellent infrastructure and Cambridge International and CBSE curriculums supported by new education technologies, almost one-third of our students are children of the Indian diaspora. During the two years of pandemic lockdown, a large number of them returned to their families abroad and some are yet to return. As a result against our full capacity of 350, we currently have a total enrolment of 270. Therefore, our first priority is to get back to full capacity. I am confident that given the excellent academic, co-curricular and sports facilities for archery, shooting, swimming and field games we offer, we will be back to full strength very soon. In the circumstances, the big promotion awarded to us by the well-informed EducationWorld sample respondents is a huge morale booster,” says Singh, an economics and law graduate of Pune and Garhwal universities, and director of a family-run hospitality company who co-promoted EGIS a decade ago having discerned a dearth of “thoroughly contemporary” primary-secondary girls schools.

A notable and encouraging phenomenon in Indian K-12 education is that excellent, globally comparable girls boarding schools are flowering not only in well-established residential schools clusters such as Dehradun — eight of Top 10 girls boarding schools in EWISR 2022-23 are sited in Dehradun — but across the country.

Apart from the well-established Mayo Girls College, Ajmer (estb.1988) which is invariably ranked among the Top 3 in the annual EWISR, another all-girls boarding school in Rajasthan which has won nationwide encomiums, is the Mody School, Lakshmangarh (MSL, estb.1989). This year, it has been awarded a substantial promotion to the Top 10 table at #9 (from #12 in 2021-22) with excellent scores under the parameters of faculty competence, co-curricular and sports education.

“It’s good news to learn that we are back in EW’s Top 10 league table which is a first step to reclaiming our rightful position in the Top 5 which we had attained in 2017-18. It’s a huge boost to our confidence after the prolonged pandemic lockdown. I am especially pleased with our above-rank score under the parameter of teacher competence because we are an entirely teacher-run school. I believe we deserved a higher score under the teacher welfare and development parameter because we accord exceptionally high importance to teacher training and development. Our teachers undergo one week of intensive upgradation during summer and winter vacations and participate in all CBSE teachers’ workshops. The quality of our faculty and dedication to their students is also reflected in our high score for individual attention to students who are provided the best co-curricular and sports education facilities on our green 265-acre campus,” says Kajal Marwaha, a former senior teacher at the highly-reputed Sanskaar Valley School, Bhopal (2006-20) and principal at Zee Mt. Litera School, Jabalpur (2020-22), appointed principal at MSL in March this year. Currently, the CBSE-affiliated MSL has an aggregate enrolment of 450 students mentored by 40 teachers.

However, in EWISR 2022-23, the most spectacular debut in the girls residential schools category is of the previously unranked Doon Girls School, Dehradun (DGS, estb.2000) which has been pitchforked into the national Top 10 with high scores under the parameters of teacher competence and academic reputation. Monisha Datta, an alumna of Garhwal, Gujarat, and Pune universities and former software professional with the Tata Group and co-founder, attributes this to DGS having remained a pre-primary and special needs focused school for children in the four-ten age group until 2005. Although in recent years, it has gradually evolved into a K-10 CISCE institution, its first batch is yet to write the ICSE class X board exam.

“We are elated that the personalised education we provide our children has been recognised by your sample respondents. With a total enrolment of 185 girls mentored by 35 teachers, we pride ourselves on our individual attention to all children and I am glad this attribute of DGS is reflected in our good score under the individual attention to students’ parameter. We are especially proud for having developed excellent pedagogies and curriculums for differently-abled children. Currently, they constitute 12 percent of student strength and we intend to raise their representation to 25 percent over the next three years. The distinguishing feature of DGS is that academics apart, we are also focused on ensuring our children learn to manage adversity and practice diversity. It’s encouraging these attributes are being recognised,” says Datta.

With several reputed girls boarding schools having been transferred to the newly introduced vintage legacy (promoted over 90 years ago) league table, beyond the Top 10, several schools have risen in the pecking order. For instance, the all-girls Guru Nanak Fifth Centenary School, Mussoorie to #11 (13) and the Birla-promoted Ashok Hall Girls School, Ranikhet to #12 (15).

Among other girls boarding schools awarded substantial promotion are MCM Kothari International School, Valsad at #13 (15) and #1 in Gujarat state; Chaman Vatika School, Ambala (19) and Shah Satnam Ji Girls School, Sirsa, Haryana jointly ranked #14 (20). Moreover, the previously unranked Divine International Girls School, Jhunjhunu (Rajasthan) has made an impressive debut in the Top 15 league table of India’s best girls boarding schools 2022-23.

For full list, please visit:EW India School Rankings 2022-23 – Top & best schools in India

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