Thanks for the EW India Preschool Rankings 2013 (EW December). The league tables are very informative and useful to parents looking to enroll their children in quality preschools across the country. In Delhi in particular, there are so many nurseries opening every other day that it’s difficult for parents to distinguish the best.
In fact my request is that the 2014 rankings list in Delhi should be expanded to Top 50 preschools cover-ing all the major residential areas of the national capital. Currently most of the ranked preschools in the Delhi league table are sited in Vasant Vihar, Vasant Kunj, Punjabi Bagh or GK. There are many good preschools in other areas such as Janakpuri, Dwarka, and Nizamuddin.
However, I must congratulate the editors of EducationWorld for including rankings of the Top 10 preschools in Gurgaon and Noida. Awareness of the importance of early childhood care and education in these two cities of Delhi NCR is very high, with several educat-ionists coming forward to promote high-quality preschools.
Suman Saxena
Delhi
Zonal rankings plea
Congratulations to all preschools ranked in the EducationWorld India Preschool Rankings 2013 (EW December). The ‘Mumbai’s most esteemed preschools’ story is elaborate and inspiring.
However we are perplexed by the Mumbai league table. Our parents — more than us — vouch for our expertise and professionalism. Kangaroo Kids, Kandivali (East), is the most sought after preschool for special education, infrastructure, individual attention to students, competence of teachers, innovative teaching, safety and hyg-iene, leadership quality, teacher welfare and development. We excel and sur-pass on other parameters too.
I want to draw your attention to the fact that not one preschool beyond Andheri West (suburbs extend from Bandra to Vasai) — except one in Kandivali (E) — has been included in the Mumbai league table. I suggest that the Mumbai rankings survey be bifurcated zone-wise, as many preschools are avail-able to children in a 3 km perimeter. Suburban and south Mumbai preschools should be ranked in their own areas. If this is done, many preschools will aspire and strive to reach the minimum quality parameters of ECCE, and EducationWorld will take a step towards breaking new ground and raising the bar for provision of quality early years education.
Currently your survey and findings are of little help to the great majority of parents and educators. Zone-wise preschool rankings will generate confi-dence in parents and help them to make appropriate choices. It is a morale booster for educators and schools alike to be validated by an esteemed mag-azine like yours.
Kusum Kanwar
Director, KK Kids Learning Systems and franchisee, Kangaroo Kids, Kandi-vali (East), Mumbai
New parameter proposal
Congratulations for publishing the EW India Preschool Rankings 2013 (EW December). Your rankings have done an excellent job of drawing the attention of preschool educators to vital para-meters such as innovative teaching, safety and hygiene, and special needs education.
Though the ten parameters of early childhood education under which the survey has ranked preschools are all-encompassing, I want to suggest the addition of age-appropriate curriculum as another parameter. Since there are no national standards or national curri-culums as in school education, some nurseries tend to burden little toddlers with formal education. This over-emphasis on reading and writing at a very early age can put children off formal learning.
Designing and delivering age-appro-priate curriculums should be an essential requirement for preschools to be ranked in your annual survey. Age inappropriate curriculums are dang-erous to the overall growth and devel-opment of children.
Puja Chopra
Delhi
Assess Bhubaneswar preschools
The EW India Preschool Rankings 2013 survey and the ten parameters of early childhood education give parents insights into what to look out for while choosing a preschool for their children. It’s amazing how the preschools sector has expanded and become more professionalised over the past decade. It was also a great idea to include tier II cities such as Pune, Ahmedabad, Gurgaon and Noida in the survey.
In fact preschools are mushrooming in smaller cities at a much faster pace than in the metros. I hope in 2014 you will be including the Top 20 preschool league table of Bhubaneswar.
Rajesh Biswas
Bhubaneswar
Wrong signal
I was shocked to read the story about Lucknow University’s laxity in dealing with faculty plagiarism (Education News ‘Institutional laxity’, EW December). Plagiarism by a professor is a serious offence and merely demoting him to the rank of reader sends a wrong signal to faculty and students. How can a professor who himself has copied his way through his doctoral thesis, guide Ph D students?
It’s obvious that Lucknow University authorities are afraid of a backlash from the powerful teachers union or some influential political leader is backing the professor. Political interference in university administration has resulted in a steep fall in academic standards. Currently a Lucknow University degree has little credibility and acceptability in the jobs market.
Stemming the rot requires the state government to stop interfering and protecting errant faculty, and empow-ering the administration to deal firmly with plagiarist professors who are bringing disrepute to the institution.
Santosh Srivastava
Noida