Except at the very top where Mongrace Montessori, Short Street has retained its premier position, there’s been a rejig in the 2014 Kolkata league table
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Except at the very top where Mongrace Montessori, Short Street has retained its premier position of last year, there’s been a rejig in the EW Preschool Rankings 2014 Kolkata league table. The seating arrangement at top table has been drastically rearranged with Stepping Stone, Salt Lake, ranked #3 last year moving up to #2, exchanging places with EuroKids, BB Block, Salt Lake and Montessori Bal Nilaya, Lake Gardens rising sharply in favour of the city’s informed public to be ranked #4 this year (#8 in 2013). Ditto The Tree House, New Alipore which has made it into the Top 5 (#9) this year.
Further down the Top 10 table as well, there’s been a repositioning of the seating order. Mongrace Montessori and Day Care, New Town ranked a modest #14 in 2013, has been elevated to #7, a great leap forward. Likewise Prarambh, B.T. Road has leapfrogged to #8 (18). Kangaroo Kids, Salt Lake and Kidzee Tulip, Dover Lane, ranked #9 and #10 respectively, complete the Top 10 in this year’s Kolkata league table.
“We are elated to receive this wonderful news! The reaffirmation of our #1 ranking is especially welcome because Mongrace Montessori, Short St. is celebrating its golden jubilee this year and the #1 rank awarded to us by the Kolkata public is a special gift.
Credit for this is due to our diligent and committed teachers and the management of the school, all of whom have given us their full support. I’m specially pleased that we have been ranked #1 on the parameters of teacher competence, innovative teaching and individual attention to students because these are our focus areas,” says Suman Sood, a graduate of Punjab and Calcutta universities who acquired valuable teaching experience in the city’s Birla High School before she was appointed principal of Mongrace Montessori, Short St. in August 2011. 
On the other hand despite her preschool having been voted to Kolkata’s Top 5 table, Kusum Bhandari, the promoter-principal of Montessori Bal Nilaya, Lake Gardens (estb. 1962), is less than satisfied with the rank awarded to the pre-primary considering the “hard work we have been doing for over half a century”. “I am perhaps the only early childhood educator personally trained by Dr. Maria Montessori who visited our school in 1963. In light of this and the continuous service we have offered parents and children in Kolkata for over 50 years, I expected Bal Nilaya to be ranked higher. Nevertheless I am grateful that we have been awarded good scores on the parameters of teacher competence and innovation, which are areas of core importance in this school. We keep our teachers updated on latest developments in early childhood care and education and best practices worldwide, and regularly integrate them into our curriculum,” says Bhandari. Currently this pioneer Montessori preschool has 350 children and 32 teachers on its muster rolls.
Further down the 20-strong EW Kolkata preschools league table of 2014 too, there’s been a change in the pecking order. While Alipore Tiny Tots and EuroKids, Lake Town have ceded considerable ground, Dolna Creche, Kasba has improved its ranking marginally to #15 from #16 last year and the previously unranked The Tree House, AD Block, Salt Lake has debuted in this year’s league table at #19.
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