The all-boys day schools 2014 league table features a substantial change in the seating arrangements at Top 10 table. But the Campion School, Mumbai seems to be consolidating its position as India’s #1 boys day school
.gif)
In the 2014 league table of all-boys day schools which features a radical change in seating arrangements at the Top 10 table, Campion School, Mumbai (estb. 1943) seems to be consolidating its ranking as India’s #1 boys day school with an aggregate score of 1,253, substantially higher than of the second ranked St. Xavier’s Collegiate School, Kolkata (1,223) which has been promoted from #5 last year.
Within the Top 5, St. John’s School, Chandigarh has slipped to #3 (2) followed by La Martiniere for Boys, Kolkata (4) and DAV Boys Senior Secondary School, Gopalpur, Chennai (5). Bishop Cotton Boys, Bangalore shares the all-India #6 rank with the previously unranked Don Bosco School, Park Circus, Kolkata which has made an impressive debut in the all-boys day schools Top 10 table this year.
Two Mumbai schools — Don Bosco High School, Matunga at #7 (#8 in 2013) and St. Mary’s High School, Mazgaon at #8 (11) — and two previously unranked schools, viz, Calcutta Boys School (9) and The Bishop’s School, Pune (10) have also made respectable debuts to complete the Top 10 all-India boys day schools 2014 league table.
“I’m very pleased to learn that Campion has retained its rank as India’s and Maharashtra’s #1 boys day school for the second year in succession. I believe it’s a vindication of our institutional focus on the holistic and all-round development — intellectual, spiritual, social and personal — of our students who are being nurtured to assume leadership positions in society. All stakeholders — management, teachers, parents and students — have worked with passion and commitment to help the school achieve this objective,” says Paul Machado, a political science and education alum of Bangalore University who acquired valuable experience at St. Mary’s, Mt. Abu and St. Mary’s, Mazgaon (Mumbai) — both all-boys schools — prior to being appointed principal of Campion in 2003. Also ranked #1 on the parameter of leadership/management quality — a tribute which Machado modestly ascribes to the “visionary management” — the CISCE-affiliated Campion School has an aggregate enrolment of 770 boys mentored by 45 teachers.
Fr. Joseph Pathickal, principal of the CISCE-affiliated Don Bosco School, Park Circus, Kolkata, which has vaulted into the Top 10 table, is perhaps even more delighted with this previously unranked school’s #6 all-India and #2 West Bengal ranking. “We are pleased and honoured with the recognition Don Bosco has received this year. For the past two years, we have engineered a process of self-evaluation which helped us identify our strengths and the areas in which we needed to improve. With the help of Adhyayan, a Mumbai-based education consultancy firm, we have improved and upgraded our leadership and management, teaching-learning processes, curriculum, community outreach programmes and partnerships and infrastructure. This comprehensive evaluation has enabled all-round improvement in the school,” says Fr. Pathickal. Founded in 1958, Don Bosco has 2,663 boys and 112 teachers on its muster rolls.
Another hitherto low-profile Kolkata-based school which has made a notable debut at #10 in the 2014 all-boys day schools league table is Calcutta Boys School (CBS). Founded way back in 1877, this formerly unranked CISCE-affiliated school has an enrolment of over 2,000 students instructed by 59 teachers. “It’s satisfying that parents and the academic community have acknowledged the hard work put in by the school’s teachers and students. Recently, The Times of India had also ranked CBS the sixth most sought after school in Kolkata. I believe our efforts of the past year to upgrade school infrastructure and facilities, and our emphasis on total personality development to prepare our boys for 21st century challenges, have contributed in raising our public profile in eastern India,” says Raja McGee, principal of CBS.
Even as apparatchiks of the CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) and goons of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) which ended 34 years of communist rule in West Bengal in 2011, have transformed college and university campuses in the state into battle grounds, Kolkata’s vintage schools practicing traditional values and discipline, are rising in the public esteem. This explains two other city-based institutions — Birla High School (estb.1941) and St. Lawrence High School (estb. 1937) — debuting at a respectable #13 in the national all-boys day schools league table.
Down south as well, the Chennai-based DAV Senior Secondary School (Boys), Mogappair (estb. 1989) has made a notable entry into the boys day schools league table at #16 all-India (and #2 in Tamil Nadu) following the example of its fraternal DAV Boys Senior Secondary, Gopalpur, ranked #5. More commendably, DAV Boys, Mogappair is ranked #2 among CBSE schools nationwide on the basis of the actual performance of its 88 students, who wrote CBSE’s class XII school-leaving exam last March.
“Our entry into the all-India league table of boys day schools is a validation of the good work we are doing. I’m especially happy that your respondents have rated us #1 nationwide on the parameter of academic reputation. Our excellent teaching/learning pedagogy which emphasises group and peer learning, and committed and motivated teachers, have enabled us to secure excellent results in the CBSE class X and XII exams. However, it’s important to note that this school’s management also accords great emphasis to co-curricular and sports education,” says Lalitha Thiagarajan, principal of DAV (Boys), Mogappair, who curiously refused to allow our photographer to shoot pictures of the school or even share photos from the archives.
To see Boys day schools all-India ranking visit http://www.educationworld.in/rank-school/all-cities/day-school/boys/2014.html