Pune’s most preferred preschools

Respondents of this year’s field survey to rate and rank Pune’s most preferred preschools have once again awarded top billing to Leapbridge International, Kalyani Nagar and Serra International, Aundh

The ew india preschool Rankings 2014 league table of Pune’s Top 10 preschools springs no big surprises. Respondents of this year’s field survey conducted by the Delhi-based market research and polling company C fore in Maharashtra’s second largest academic and industrial hub (after Mumbai), have once again awarded top billing to Leapbridge International Preschool, Kalyani Nagar followed by Serra International Preschool, Aundh, with the latter only one point behind Leapbridge in the aggregate score.

However, the informed respondents have upgraded Primrose Nursery, Koregaon Park, ranked #6 in 2013, to #3 this year. In the rest of the ten-strong league table, except for minor adjustments the 2014 EW Pune preschool rankings league table is a replica of last year’s.

Promoted in 2010 by the Mumbai-based Navneet Education Ltd, a listed company which dominates the textbooks publishing and stationery products market in western India, Leapbridge International, Kalyani Nagar, has also been awarded the highest score on the parameters of competence of teachers, value for money, safety and hygiene, and special needs education. Its affiliated Leapbridge International Preschool, Aundh is ranked #5.

“We are thrilled to have been awarded this honour for the second year in a row. The #1 ranking is public appreciation of our continuous efforts to train and skill our teachers and ensure the highest safety and hygiene standards for our children. In Leapbridge, teachers are the fulcrum of our operations and are continuously upskilled in latest early childhood care and education (ECCE) pedagogies. Hence the #1 rank for teacher competence is very satisfying. Moreover, the Top 5 rank awarded to Leapbridge, Aundh is proof that we have been successful in standardising operations across all our centres,” says Prriety Gosalia, a child psychology, education management, and multiple intelligences alumna of Bombay University, and the Multiple Intelligences Institute, Singapore, and chief executive officer of the Leapbridge International Group of five preschools in Pune and one in Mumbai (Leapbridge, Sion — ranked #4 in the Mumbai league table) with an aggregate enrolment of 600 students.

While the top two ranks have been retained by the newly promoted Leapbridge and Serra International (estb.2009), respondents of the survey have ranked the 30-year-old Primrose Nursery, sited in Pune’s upscale Koregaon Park, a higher #3 (from #6 in 2013) and awarded it the #1 rank for parental involvement. Promoted in 1985 with an initial batch of 15 tiny tots, Primrose (tuition fee: Rs.8,000 per month) currently has an enrolment of 380 students aged two-five years, nurtured by 30 teachers.

“Last year’s survey was disappointing. But this year, informed parents and academics in Pune have acknowledged the good work we’ve been doing in ECCE for over 25 years. Our teachers are highly trained and deliver a wholesome activity-based child-centric curriculum developed after studying several ECCE pedagogies. Moreover, parents are our valued partners and are encouraged to interact and share ideas with teachers. Our commitment to constantly upgrade and update teaching methods and facilities is what distinguishes Primrose Nursery,” says Ashwina Madraswala, an alumna of Mumbai University who taught at the Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai before moving to Pune in 1985, when she signed up with Primrose Nursery as teacher and was appointed principal in 2004.

Further down the table, Orange Ivy Play School, Viman Nagar (#4) and Leapbridge International Preschool, Aundh (#5) have exchanged their 2013 ranks while Vivero International Preschool, Kalyani Nagar — promoted by Edvance Preschools Pvt. Ltd which has also established the second-ranked Serra International in academic partnership with the well-known Singapore-based Eton House International Education Group — has lost considerable ground to be ranked #6 (from #3 in 2013) even as Sapling Nursery, Baner Road (estb.1994) has held on to its #7 position. The Tree House, Aundh has improved its last year’s #10 rank to #8 in 2014 while Little Millennium, Viman Nagar (#9) and EuroKids, Kalyani Nagar (#10) have ceded ground.

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