For upper class households that prefer their children to grow up at home and then move to residential colleges and universities, a new genre of international day schools, which offer academic education on a par with the very best boarding schools, has mushroomed in post-liberalisation India Unlike haute bourgeoisie households in the UK and increasingly in the US that prefer to send their offspring to top-ranked boarding schools asap, upper class households in India prefer their children to grow up at home and then move to residential colleges and universities. To cater to this demand of the country’s rapidly multiplying high net worth families, a new genre of international day schools that offer academic education on a par with the very best boarding schools, has mushroomed in post-liberalisation India. In our crowded metros, state capitals and latterly tier III-IV cities, international day schools affiliated with globally reputed offshore exam boards such as International Baccalaureate (Geneva) and Cambridge International (UK), provide progeny of the upper middle and elite classes high-quality multidisciplinary K-12 education benchmarked with the latest innovations in the West, at relatively affordable prices compared to international day-cum-boarding and fully residential schools. This year, the EW International Day Schools Rankings 2020-21 league table rates and ranks 114 schools in 32 cities countrywide (cf. 89 schools, 25 cities in 2019-20). Ab initio since 2013 when the umbrella category of international schools was sub-divided into day, day-cum-boarding and wholly residential schools to avoid apples and oranges type comparisons, the Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai (DAIS) has dominated this highly competitive sub-category. This year again for the eighth year in succession, the 11,368 sample respondents of EWISR 2020-21 comprising parents, principals, teachers and educationists have voted DAIS India’s #1 international day school with top scores on eight of the 14 parameters of K-12 education excellence, including teacher competence, academic reputation, co-curricular and special needs education. Founded in 2003 to commemorate the memory of legendary business leader Dhirubhai Ambani (1932-2002), founder-chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd, India’s most valuable company by market capitalisation (Rs.16 lakh crore), the Cambridge and IB-affiliated DAIS, sited within Mumbai’s ultra-modern Bandra-Kurla Complex business district, provides best global standard academic, sports, and co-curricular education to 1,093 students mentored by 154 teachers. “We are thrilled that this year’s sample respondents have again ranked DAIS India’s #1 international school. The endorsement of our work by EducationWorld is very encouraging; it shows that DAIS is on the right path towards nurturing our children’s all-round development. Our competent and committed teachers are the pillars on which the school has been developed over the past 18 years to excel academically as also in sports and co-curricular accomplishments at national and international levels, and by way of placements in the world’s top universities. They have quickly and brilliantly adapted to the digital medium providing children engaging online classes during the past six months of the pandemic shut-down. Credit must also accrue to my daughter Isha Ambani Piramal, who has been leading the school’s digital transformation initiatives during…
