An IT and IT-enabled services hotspot with a population of highly-educated and skilled professionals and the highest per capita income of Delhi NCR, Noida is experiencing spiralling demand for high-quality preschool to tertiary education. Here are Noida’s most respected preschools for the year 2016: Established in the Gautam Buddh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh during the controversial Emergency period (1975-1977) by the Congress party’s stormy petrel the late Sanjay Gandhi under the UP Industrial Area Development Act, Noida (New Okhla Industrial Development Authority) has recorded growth momentum out of all proportion to its lawless and backward parent state. Its proximity to Delhi and inclusion in the National Capital Region (together with Gurgaon and Ghaziabad) has helped Noida to transform into a hotspot of IT and IT-enabled services hosting the offices of Wipro Technologies, TCS, HCL Technologies, IBM, Dell, Accenture among other corporate heavyweights. Unsurprisingly, the city (pop. 637,272) attracts highly-educated and skilled professionals and boasts the highest per capita income (Rs.85,519) of the NCR region. Inevitably, industrial growth and urbanisation has led to spiralling demand for high-quality education across the spectrum from preschool to higher education. To construct the EW Noida Preschool Rankings 2016 league table, an informed respondents sample comprising 518 parents of preschool children and 59 principals/teachers were interviewed by field personnel of Delhi-based market research firm C fore in this fast-track town. PROPRIETARY PRESCHOOLS Ranked #1 since 2013, the Windows Playgroup & Nursery School, Sector 50 has had to cede top rank this year to the Gaia Play School, Sector 93, ranked second for the past three years. Sited on a one-acre green campus with an ornamental pond, Gaia (estb.2008) is also ranked #1 on the parameters of individual attention to students, leadership quality and innovative teaching. “Somewhat belatedly, our philosophy of engaging youngest children with nature in an eco-friendly learning environment is finally being appreciated. Gaia’s #1 ranking on innovative teaching and individual attention to students is not surprising because our teachers are given full freedom to innovate and provide individual attention to every child. Here children learn through theatre, music, role-play, pottery, story-telling and outdoor play to develop early communication and social skills. The outcome is that our children are readily admitted into top K-12 schools of Delhi NCR,” says Aditi Jain Anil, a political science postgraduate of Dehradun University and founder chairperson of Gaia which has 90 students and ten teachers on its muster rolls. Following Gaia in the 11-strong league table of Noida’s most admired proprietary pre-primaries is the previously top-ranked Windows Playgroup and Amiown, Sector 44, jointly ranked #2. Meanwhile, the Khaitan Preschool, Sector 40, ranked #8 in 2015, has rocketed to #3 while Stimulus Preschool, Sector 39 (4), Gennext, Sector 62 (5) and Little Pearls, Sector 29 (6) are grouped at the high end of top table. Nandini Malik, headmistress of the Khaitan Preschool, Sector 40 (estb.2013) which has an enrolment of 155 students, believes this recognition was “long overdue”. “EW’s past surveys had under-estimated us. Since inception, we have been…
