Unsurprisingly, the low-profile and understated Rishi Valley School (RVS) established by philosopher and alternative education savant Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) in 1931, which has been voted the countrys most admired boarding school of all types for the past three years by the informed respondents who const-itute the national database of the annual EW India School Rankings, has been adjudged the countrys best co-educat-ional boarding school this year. Rated # 1 on all parameters including teacher welfare, faculty competence, academic reputation, life skills and conflict manag-ement, and pastoral care, RVS has again been awarded the highest aggregate across all types of boarding schools. Quite evidently as testified by the high rankings awarded to all schools affiliated with the Chennai-based Krishnamurti Foundation of India (KFI) and other so-called swamiji schools, the romance of Indias new middle class with alternate-style schools distinguished by their focus on ecology, environment sustain-ability and respect for traditional Indian culture and mores, is in full bloom.
However characteristically, the media attention that RVS has been getting is less than welcome at this school sited off the beaten track in Chittoor (pop. 320,000) in rural Andhra Pradesh. While expressing satisfaction that the work being done in RVS is appreciated by discerning people and politely discl-aiming any intention to belittle EducationWorld which is doing important work by bringing key issues in education to the wider public, Siddhartha Menon, principal and an alumnus of RVS himself, questions the utility of the annual EW India School Rankings. It is perhaps worth asking how far comparative ratings of this type, even with exhaustive research to back them, are useful. Its hard to see how schools which are rated and those that are not, would actually benefit in terms of quality of education. A school needs to introspect and learn continually, regardless of how high or low it is rated against other schools. As far as the public is concerned, the ratings might fuel a societal tendency to measure worth in somewhat simplistic ways, Menon said in a note to EW.
Praveen Vasisht, principal of the Lawrence School, Sanawar (estb. 1847) basking in the afterglow of a sextet from the school becoming the first school team to scale Mt. Everest and placing the youngest boy on the sum-mit of the highest point of planet Earth, is unhappy about the disaggregation and subdivision of the annual EW India School Rankings into several categories this year. While I am pleased that Lawrence, Sanawar is ranked # 2 among the countrys co-ed boarding schools, and in particular about our top ranking in this category on the parameters of sports education and internationalism, Im not sure whether the segregation of boarding schools into several categories is a good idea. In my opinion, over-classification dilutes the rankings and makes them too complex. I would have preferred a lower ranking in a composite league table, says Vasisht.
However Derek Mountford, an alumnus of St. Stephens College, Delhi and School of African and Oriental Studies, London and hitherto principal of the Assam Valley School, Balipara (estb.1995) which he nurtured into one of Indias Top 5 boarding schools and # 1 in eastern India during his term (2003-13) as headmaster, has no obj-ection with the subdivision of schools into more accurately comparable categ-ories which he believes has leveled the playing field. I strongly support the improved methodology of evalu-ating all-boys, all-girls, and co-ed boarding schools in separate categories. Each genre involves a unique set of challenges, but in my view co-education is the most complex. I am truly delighted to learn that the young AVS has been ranked among the Top 3 co-ed boarding schools countrywide. It was a perfect present received on my last day in office at AVS, says Mountford who has accepted the position of director of the Kasiga School, Dehradun.
Although for purposes of comparable evaluation, boarding schools have been subdivided into three categories, to obviate multiplicity of tables which might induce reader fatigue, parameter rankings of boarding schools (see pg. 158) are across all categories. These tables maintain a link with the past while enabling schools, parents and students to mine the data to ascertain their category-specific ratings and rankings.
To see co-ed boarding schools league table see  https://www.educationworld.in/rank-school/all-cities/boarding-school/co-ed/2013.html