Letter from the Editor
Since EducationWorld was launched in 1999 upon an unready public to "build the pressure of public opinion to make education the No.1 item on the national agenda", I aspired to publish a league table ranking the country’s top primary-cum-secondary schools — many of whom have huge reputations — inter se. Alas, all these years despite its noble intent and unique positioning as the country’s sole education-focused news and analysis magazine, this publication was somewhat under-appreciated by its targeted publics — parents, teachers, higher secondary upward students and particularly advertisers, sine qua non. But as we hung in there, the financial tide has turned with readers, advertisers, subscribers and investors beginning to see the light and discern the crucial importance of reaconstructing the education system as the pre-condition of meaningful socio-economic development. Therefore at the first opportunity we commissioned IMRB International —India’s pioneer and perhaps most respected market research firm (estb.1971) — to develop a league table ranking the country’s most respected schools. The fruit of this laborious exercise is featured in our path-breaking cover story of this month. It ranks India’s top 250 schools (selected by us) and commonly perceived as the country’s best, among themselves nationally and regionally. Moreover these first of their type EducationWorld-IMRB league tables also rank boarding schools separately.
Quite a few of the rankings and ratings surprised me, as I’m sure they will our readers. But if some school managements haven’t been given the ranking they deserve, don’t despair. Publication of the EW-IMRB league tables of India’s most respected schools will henceforth be an annual event. Therefore institutional managements which have done a good job, but have forgotten to talk about it, can start doing so right now so that the public is better informed about their curriculum innovations and other initiatives.
Informed opinion on the issue of publishing league tables rating and ranking education institutions is divided. A growing minority within the education fraternity disapproves of them on the ground that they provoke school/college managements to impose excessive pressure on students to excel academically, thus spoiling their education experience. That’s why when we commissioned IMRB International to conduct the national polling exercise to elicit perceptions — and this survey is all about perceptions rather than facts — we stipulated 11 parameters including co-curricular and sports education in addition to academic reputation, on which the opinions of sample respondents should be solicited. The objective was to gauge public opinion as to which schools provide the most balanced and holistic education to their students.
Inevitably, the EW-IMRB survey and league tables published in these pages are not perfect, nor the last word on institutional excellence. But they have generated unexpected enthusiasm and interest within the academic community with all school managements cooperating fully with our editorial team which has analysed the data, and pre-ordering large numbers of copies of this issue for distribution among parents, students and other publics. This indicates that there is genuine desire for institutional improvement, upgradation and excellence within the education community. This is perhaps the most encouraging outcome of the first EW-IMRB survey of India’s most respected schools.
Dilip Thakore