Last year, your editors introduced the EW Global School Rankings 2019-20 under our ‘Education Unites World’ initiative to rate and rank the most respected schools of neighbouring countries. The objective of including the best neighbour countries schools is to encourage student-teacher exchanges with India and inter se. Last year, juries comprising education leaders and experts in these countries ranked the Top 10 primary-secondary schools in the kingdoms of the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal and Bangladesh. However, this year because of the disruption caused to education systems globally by the Covid-19 pandemic, the EW Global School Rankings 2020-21 are restricted to the kingdoms of the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain (CBSE and/or CISCE, Delhi affiliated schools only), Nepal, and Bangladesh. To compile the Top 10 league tables for the emirates of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman, and the kingdoms of Oman and Bahrain, an expert jury comprising eminent educationists (Savitri Menon, founder & CEO, Sage Educational Consultants, Dubai Knowledge Park, Dubai; Alka Malik, managing director, Ascentria Examinations & Tests Preparation Center LLC, Dubai; Shyamala Elango, Director, Inner Universe, Dubai; and Hemant Julka, parent and chief operating officer, Vegetation Technology Redefined, Sharjah) ranked schools under 11 parameters of education excellence including teacher competence, co-curricular education, academic reputation and leadership/management quality. To compile the Top 10 league tables for Nepal and Bangladesh, an expert jury comprising eminent educationists (Dr. Dhirendra Mishra, founder-director of Life Educare Pvt. Ltd, Delhi/Raipur; Dheeraj Mehrotra, author and educationist, Lucknow; Rajyalaxmi Glochha, social worker/educationist, director of the Kritika Education and Health Foundation and member of the Constituent Assembly, Nepal and Dr. M.R. Kabir, professor of civil engineering, University of Asia Pacific, Dhaka) ranked schools under 14 parameters of education excellence including teacher competence, co-curricular education, academic reputation, special needs education and leadership/management quality. The Top 10 schools league tables for the emirates of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ajman and Sharjah, the kingdoms of Bahrain and Oman and the countries of Nepal and Bangladesh are presented in the pages following. “What a wonderful way to end 2020. The Dubai #1 rank for the flagship school of GEMS Education in the UAE reaffirms our commitment to our children and our vision of ‘Inspiring children to be positive changemakers’. In the West, there has been lament over ‘loss of learning’ this academic year, but we truly believe that the pandemic has offered amazing learning opportunities, for innovation to help society at large and reasons to celebrate the new-found resilience of our students.” — Nargish Khambatta, principal, GEMS Modern Academy, Dubai “We are pleased that Sharjah Indian School has retained its #1 ranking in 2020-21 awarded by a specially constituted jury. The credit goes to our dedicated and disciplined teachers and leadership provided by the Indian Association of Sharjah, and support extended by the Sharjah Private Education Authority led by Dr. Muhadditha. We are especially delighted that the jury has recognised our efforts to provide differentiated learning through blended and hybrid learning strategies while…
