Even though single sex boarding schools are being phased out, for cultural reasons many households prefer single sex institutions, especially girls boarding schools which serve a useful purpose
Evidently single sex girls’ boarding schools are being phased out, because only 11 of them are sufficiently well-known to the 8,263 sample respondents interviewed by C fore field researchers for this year’s EW league tables. Under the C fore ratings and ranking methodology, schools rated by less than 25 respondents from regional databases are not included in the league tables.
Nevertheless in India’s uniquely plural society in which for religious and cultural reasons many households still prefer to send children to single sex education institutions, girls’ boarding schools serve a useful purpose inasmuch as they provide a much better option to not sending girl children to school at all, and/or denying them the valuable advantages of boarding school education.
Be that as it may, there’s no change at the very top of this year’s girls boarding schools league table with the Welham Girls, Dehradun, Mayo Girls, Ajmer and Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior retaining their top three ranking at the Top 11 table. However, this year Scindia Kanya, Gwalior is obliged to share the #3 national rank with Unison World School, Dehradun followed by Ecole Globale International, Dehradun and Ashok Hall Girls, Ranikhet (Uttar Pradesh) who make up the Top 5.
“Naturally I’m very happy on behalf of all our teachers and students who put in a very determined effort round the year, which has helped us maintain our top ranking. In Welham Girls, we believe in simplicity, dignity, integrity and high standards and our collective effort is to keep raising the bar for ourselves — in academics and skill areas as much as in character-building. We truly believe the real work of the faculty is character building. If we are successful in that, our students will surely find their rightful place in the world,” says Jyotsna Brar, an English and education graduate of Panjab University and principal of Welham Girls since 2000.
Although Welham Girls is top ranked on almost every parameter of education excellence including academic reputation, Brar takes special pride that the school is ranked #1 on the parameters of pastoral care and internationalism. “Our focus is to introduce the world to students who spend so much time within the campus. I believe we have made a very big effort to address this issue and the onus has fallen on the faculty to bridge the gap. In the past year, our students have travelled to the UK, Bhutan, China, USA, Singapore, and Malaysia. All these have been educational visits into which we packed learning modules spanning the martial and fine arts, skills and academic contests. Likewise many schools and universities from India and abroad visit us,” adds Brar.
Veena Singh, a history, political science and education postgraduate of Panjab and Kurukshetra universities with teaching experience in Libya, the all-girls boarding Vidya Devi Jindal School, Hisar (ranked #6 this year) where she served in various capacities for 22 years prior to being appointed founder-principal of the superbly-equipped Unison World School (UWS) in 2007, is equally pleased with the quick ascent of this relatively new school in the EW league tables.
“In 2012 when we were ranked #23, we implemented a detailed plan to raise the performance of UWS across all parameters drawn up by EW to rate and rank schools. In particular, we undertook a mission to upgrade our infrastructure and especially sports facilities to better the best in this category. Therefore I’m very satisfied that we have been ranked #1 on the parameter of infrastructure and second for sports education for which we provide the best facilities countrywide. However in UWS we have established a careful balance between academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular education. Our exam results are excellent and this year we expect some of our girls to be top-ranked in Asia in CIE’s IGCSE examinations,” says Singh. Affiliated with the Delhi-based CISCE and UK-based CIE, the class IV-XII UWS has 450 girl students instructed by 75 teachers (and 23 sports coaches) on its muster rolls.
Yet perhaps the most notable feature of the girls’ boarding schools 2014 league table is the debut of the previously unranked Mody School, Lakshmangarh, Sikar district, Rajasthan at the Top 10 table (#9 all-India and #2 in Rajasthan). Sprawled over a 265-acre campus boasting 20,000 trees hosting 90 avian species, this progressive CBSE, CIE and IBO- affiliated all-girls class III-X school promoted by business tycoon Rajendra Prasad Mody in 1989, has 1,100 students (900 boarders) on its muster rolls.
“I’m surprised and delighted that our low-profile school has been ranked among the country’s Top 10 girls’ boarding schools this year. This is encouraging recognition of the resolute efforts we are making to provide girl children equal education opportunities and develop them into self-reliant and skilled professionals, who are simultaneously aware and protective of their ecology and environment, and respectful of our Indian cultural traditions,” says Renu Sehgal, an alumna of Kanpur, Panjab and Symbiosis universities and former headmistress of the City Montessori School, Rajajipuram, Lucknow, who was appointed principal of the Mody School in 1999.
To see Girls Boarding Schools all-India ranking visit http://www.educationworld.in/rank-school/all-cities/boarding-school/girls/2014.html