Field personnel of the Delhi-based C fore interviewed 563 well-informed parents of preschool children and 67 principals/teachers in Noida to rate and rank 22 pre-primaries in the proprietary/owned and franchised categories across ten parameters of ECCE excellence. Here are Noida’s best preschools 2018-19. The New Okhla Industrial Development Authority aka Noida, sited in the Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh — India’s most populous (227 million) and backward state — is an island of prosperity which has rapidly transformed into an IT/ITES services hotspot. Within easy motoring distance from Delhi and included in the National Capital Region together with Gurgaon and Ghaziabad, this fast growing satellite city (pop. 650,000), which hosts offices of IT heavyweights such as Wipro Technologies, TCS, HCL, IBM, Dell and Accenture, attracts thousands of highly educated and skilled professionals who understand the value of and demand professionally administered early childhood care and education (ECCE) for their progeny. To compile the EW Noida Preschool Rankings 2018-19, field personnel of the Delhi-based market research and opinion polls company C fore interviewed 563 well-informed parents of preschool children and 67 principals/teachers in Noida to rate and rank 22 pre-primaries in the proprietary/owned and franchised categories across ten parameters of ECCE excellence. Proprietary preschools Although Noida’s informed sample respondents have reconfirmed Gaia Playschool, Sector 93, Amiown, Sector 44 and Khaitan Preschool, Sector 40 as the city’s top three proprietary pre-primaries, they have also promoted the previously #3 ranked Windows Play Group & Nursery School, Sector 50 to #2 (jointly with Amiown) and Pathways Early Years, Sector 100 to #3 (tied with Khaitan Preschool). The Top 5 table is completed by Stimulus Preschool, Sector 39 which has moved up to #4 (5) and Serra International, Sector 62 at #5 which has made an impressive debut in this year’s EW Noida proprietary preschools league table. Established in 2008 and sited on a green campus with a duck pond, Gaia Playschool is top-ranked on seven of EducationWorld’s ten parameters of ECCE excellence, including teacher competence and development, infrastructure provision, value for money, innovative teaching, and leadership. “Our #1 ranking for the past three years is public endorsement of Gaia’s commitment to celebrate the innate talents and individuality of every child, instill social values and ethics derived from India’s traditional education system, and deliver a nature-friendly curriculum. We invest heavily in teacher recruitment and development. Therefore, I am especially pleased about our top scores under the parameters of teacher competence and welfare, and innovative teaching. Special needs education is also very close to my heart. Among my numerous future plans is to establish a special wing for autistic children,” says Aditi Jain, a political science postgraduate of Dehradun University and founder-chairperson of Gaia Playschool, which has an enrolment of 96 children and five teachers. Jain also manages Anandam, a free-of-charge school for 96 economically underprivileged children, and is an active member of the CABE (Central Advisory Board of Education) committee of the Union HRD ministry. Likewise Aneesha Sahni, coordinator of Pathways Early Years, Sector…
