Ranked India’s premier international day-cum-boarding school for the fourth year in succession, the Indus International School, Bangalore seems to have consolidated its apex position in this category.

In the latest EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR) 2015, the state-of-the-art Indus International School, Bangalore (IIS-B, estb. 2003) has been voted India’s #1 international day-cum-boarding school by a huge margin for the fourth consecutive year while Pathways World School, Aravali (estb. 2003) is ranked #2 for the third year. Further down the EW International Day-cum-Boarding Rankings 2015 comprising 23 schools affiliated with foreign examination boards, there™s been a rearrangement of seats.

The four-year-old Aga Khan Academy, Hyderabad has quickly risen in public esteem to be ranked #3 (#6 in 2014) jointly with Indus International, Pune ” an affiliate of IIS-Bangalore ” previously ranked #4 while The International School, Bangalore has been pushed to #4 position. The Top 5 is completed by Singapore International School, Mumbai which has dramatically risen from #10 in 2014 to #5 this year.

Genesis Global School, Noida and the media-unfriendly Stonehill International School, Bangalore have both been promoted from #7 and #8 positions in 2014 to #6 and #7 respectively followed by G.D. Goenka World School, Sohna Road, Gurgaon at #8 (#6 last year). KiiT International, Bhubaneswar has inched up from #10 last year and shares the #9 rank with Vidya Sanskar International, Faridabad while the tenth rank has been awarded to Indus International, Hyderabad (#7 in 2014).

Sarojini Rao, principal of the IBO, Geneva-affiliated IIS, Bangalore since 2006, is particularly satisfied that this K-12 school, which has 1,258 students including 490 girls and 360 boarders from 30 countries on its muster rolls, is top-ranked among all international schools on the parameters of individual attention to students, community service, life skills and conflict management, parental involvement and leadership/management quality (the sample respondents™ encomium to Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Arjun Ray, chief executive of Indus International schools) ” all ranked in the Top 10.

Our top ratings on these parameters are especially satisfying as these are our school’s focus areas. I am also very happy with our #1 rank on community service ” our students recently launched an Indus Mobile Health Clinic which provides healthcare services to villages nearby, and have  also set up an affordable sanitary napkins manufacturing unit on the campus. The annual EWISR has raised the bar of school education by including parameters beyond academics, says Rao.

Likewise, Dr. Geoffrey Fisher, principal of the newly-promoted (2011) IBO-affiliated Aga Khan Academy, Hyderabad (AKAH), is œdelighted with the school’s steady ascent in the EW league tables. Ranked #6 in 2014 in the category of international day-cum-boarding schools, AKAH, which has an aggregate enrolment of 600 students, including 240 girls and 275 boarders, is ranked #3 nationally and #1 in the new state of Telangana.

Promoted by the Aga Khan Development Network Foundation, AKAH is second in a network of 18 Aga Khan academies (the first academy opened in Mombasa, Kenya in 2003, see EW January 2012) proposed to be rolled out in 14 countries worldwide. Sited on a sprawling 100-acre campus on the outskirts of Hyderabad, the school with nine state-of-the-art science laboratories, two professional dance studios, separate soccer, cricket and hockey fields, a full-size athletics track, tennis, squash, basketball and volleyball courts, is ranked #2 on the parameter of infrastructure provision and #3 for co-curricular education.

I am delighted that His Highness the Aga Khan’s vision of a new type of school with a social purpose has been granted such quick acknowledgement. The school’s values framework which has five strands i.e, ethics, pluralism, civil society and governance, culture and heritage and global economics, underpins our academics, co-curricular, games and sports curricula. Two batches from AKAH who have graduated have been accepted into internationally ranked universities with significant scholarships, says Fisher, an alumnus of Bath University and former principal, Kodaikanal International School, Antwerp International School and United World College Maastricht, who was appointed principal of AKAH in 2014.

Yet perhaps the most impressive advance in the international day-cum-boarding schools league table this year is of the Singapore International School (SIS), Mumbai, set on an expansive 10-acre campus in India’s land-starved commercial capital. Promoted in 2007, this CIE, UK and IBO, Geneva-affiliated K-12 co-ed school has 500 students including 200 boarders on its muster rolls. Ranked #4 in 2013 and #10 last year, the school has been promoted to the Top 5 table this year.

Kaiser Dopaishi, an alumnus of Bombay University and former vice principal of the top-ranked Kodaikanal International School and principal of SIS since 2011, is surprised by the roller-coaster ride of SIS in the EW league tables. It’s difficult to analyse this volatility in public perception. However, it™s interesting how public perception about SIS is converging with what we perceive as our standing among international schools. Our highly experienced and dedicated IB and IGCSE teachers, who have translated our idea of individualised learning and holistic academic programme into classroom lessons, are responsible for SIS™ promotion to the Top 5 table, says Dopaishi.

To view the EW India International Day-cum-boarding Schools Rankings 2015 visit www.educationworld.in/rank-school/all-cities/international-school/day-cum-boarding/2015.html