Among international schools the league table of day schools is the lengthiest. Not surprising. They provide globally benchmarked international certification at relatively affordable prices compared to international day-cum-boarding and wholly residential schools. Within the broad category of international schools, the league table of international day schools is the lengthiest and most competitive in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR). Not surprising. Because international day schools provide globally benchmarked K-12 education and international certification at relatively affordable prices compared with international day-cum-boarding and wholly residential schools, which are obliged to make huge investments in housing and related facilities for boarders. Therefore, they are hugely popular with India’s aspirational and upper middle and elite classes who want to provide their children curriculums, pedagogies and certification of globally reputed offshore exam boards such as International Baccalaureate (Geneva) and Cambridge International (UK). This year the league table of international day schools is 144-strong with schools ranked in 39 cities including several tier III-IV cities, indicating a demand surge for schools providing internationally recognised qualifications and certification. Since 2013 when EWISR was redesigned to rate and rank India’s most admired primary-secondaries in three broad categories — day, boarding, and international — and several sub-categories (to eliminate apples and oranges type comparisons), Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai (DAIS, estb.2003), promoted by the heirs of legendary business leader Dhirubhai Ambani (1932-2002), founder-chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd, the country’s most respected and valuable company (annual revenue: Rs.9.75 lakh crore), has consistently been voted India’s premier international day school. This year too, the 18,928 sample respondents — parents, principals, teachers and educationists — polled by the Delhi-based market research company C fore have voted DAIS the #1 international day school with top scores under the parameters of academic reputation, teacher competence and development, curriculum and pedagogy, co-curricular and sports education, and parental involvement. “The DAIS community takes immense pride that we are ranked India’s #1 international day school for the 11th consecutive year. I attribute our consistent top rank to the extraordinary commitment of our highly talented faculty and leadership team; emphasis on professional development of teachers; continuous review of curriculum and implementation of innovative pedagogies; focus on inclusive education and children’s holistic development, and parents’ unwavering trust. The school’s outstanding exam results, placement of students in the world’s top universities, excellent performance in sports and co-curricular education, and accomplishments of our alumni are a testament to our school’s education philosophy and practices. It explains our top scores on most of the EW survey parameters of education excellence. Moreover, as part of DAIS’ transition to the IB PYP and MYP frameworks, we have recruited many more teachers and school leaders, improving our teacher-pupil ratio to 1:6,” says Nita Ambani, founder-chairperson of DAIS and Reliance Foundation (estb.2010), the philanthropic initiative of Reliance Industries. Currently, DAIS has an enrolment of 1,087 students mentored by 197 teachers. According to Ambani, DAIS is at “the cusp of an exciting transformational journey as we are eagerly preparing to unveil the Nita Mukesh Ambani…
