In a tightly contested race for top position in this southern port city, Vael’s Billabong High-Kangaroo Kids, Neelankarai has been perceived as Chennai’s most preferred early childhood education institution
Vael’s Billabong High-Kangaroo Kids, Neelankarai (KKN, estd. 2004), a franchisee of the Mumbai-based Kangaroo Kids Education Ltd, is Chennai’s most preferred early childhood education (ECE) institution by a short head in a tightly contested race for the top position in this southern port city (pop. 4.1 million). With an aggregate score of 87 out of a maximum possible 110 across ten parameters, KKN has been rated numero uno on the all-important parameters of teacher competence, leadership, safety and hygiene and special needs education, pipping EuroKids, Anna Nagar (86), ranked No.1 for infrastructure, individual attention to students and second on the parameter of teacher quality.
In turn, EuroKids, Anna Nagar is a solitary point ahead of Bamboola, Raja Annamalaipuram (85). Chennai’s top 20 pre-schools were rated and ranked by a selected sample of 219 SECA parents and 25 principals/teachers early this year for the inaugural EducationWorld-C fore Survey of India’s Most Preferred Pre-schools.
“I am excited and thrilled to learn that KKN has been voted the premier pre-school in Chennai. I dedicate this honour to parents who reposed trust and confidence in us right from the day the school began operations five years ago, and to the dedication and commitment of our teachers. Therefore I am particularly satisfied our teachers have been adjudged the best in Chennai. I am also specially pleased that we have received the highest rating on the parameters of safety and hygiene and special needs education because our efforts have focused upon making KKN a home away from home, where children have excellent play oppor-tunities in a safe and secure enviro-nment,” says Arthi Ganesh, master franchisee of KKN and a trustee of Vel’s Education Trust (estb. 1992) constituted by Dr. Ishari K. Ganesh, which promoted KKN in 2004. The Vel’s Education Trust has also established Vel’s University and 15 other educational institutions in Tamil Nadu with an aggregate enrolment of 5,200 students and 500 faculty. Currently KKN has an enrolment of 380 children in its play, nursery, junior and senior kindergarten school, and primarily serves as a feeder institution to the CISCE-affiliated I-IX Vael’s Billabong High International School, Injambakkam.
Sudha Lakshmanan, proprietrix of the city-based Vedha Enterprises who promoted EuroKids, Anna Nagar (EKAN) as a franchisee of EuroKids International in 2005 for 23 students mentored by four teachers, is perhaps only marginally less delighted by the outcome of the EW-C fore survey of pre-schools. “I am gratified that we have been rated the best pre-school in Chennai on the parameter of infra-structure, because the world-class infrastructure of EKAN includes air-conditioned classrooms, splash pool, sandpit, Kindermusik and a variety of Montessori toys. I am also very pleased that EKAN has been rated No.1 on the parameter of individual attention to students, because two-six is a very important age for children to develop language, motor, social skills and self-esteem,” says Lakshmanan, an alumna of Madras University and the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhuba-neshwar (Orissa) who quit a corporate career with Wipro, Chennai and promoted EKAN five years ago with a capital investment of Rs.13 lakh. Currently EKAN (tuition fee: Rs.29,000 per annum) which follows the Montessori and Playway pedagogies has 135 children, ten teachers and ten support staff on its rolls.
The mushroom growth of internationally benchmarked pre-schools in Chennai has been warmly welcomed by the city’s educationally aware parents. “The KKN pre-school experience has transformed my elder daughter aged seven into a skilled, talented and outgoing primary school student. Now my younger daughter Monisha is following in her footsteps,” says Roopa Doulagar, a city-based homemaker.
Adds S. Vidyalakshmi whose daughter Reshma studied at the Bamboola Play School, Annamalaipuram: “It was a very satisfying experience for parents and child. Reshma has learned to interact confidently with people of all ages and has excellent manners.”
Chennai's best pre-schools league table userfiles/Chennai league table.pdf
Parameters of Excellence: Chennai's Top Pre-schools userfiles/Parameters tables-Chennai.pdf