The long-reign in the annual EW India School Rankings of Modern High School, Kolkata as the country’s #1 all-girls day school has ended. However the top-ranker’s trophy for this sub-category of day schools (which will be awarded in Delhi on September 20) won’t be moving out of Kolkata. Because the 1,189 knowledgeable sample respondents who rated and ranked all schools in eastern India have awarded the top score to La Martiniere for Girls, Kolkata (estb.1836) followed by yet another vintage Kolkata girls school — Loreto House, Middleton (estb.1842), ranked #5 nationally in 2013. While the third and fourth seats at the Top 5 table have been retained by J.B. Petit High, Mumbai and Carmel Convent, Chandigarh, Modern High, Kolkata is ranked #5 this year.
Lorraine Mirza, principal of the CISCE-affiliated La Martiniere for Girls, is proud of the national #1 rank awarded to this 178-year-old school. “This is a great parting present to me as I retire as principal on August 31. Over the past three years, we have made special efforts to expose our girl students to experiential learning activities such as robotics, martial arts, development of communication skills through drama and music, and sports including rowing, tennis and golf. Collaboration agreements with schools in the UK and Singapore, and student participation in international events such as the Harvard Model United Nations held in Beijing, have broadened their horizons and positively impacted the public profile of our school,” says Mirza. Currently La Martiniere has an enrolment of 2,500 girl students instructed by 100 teachers.
A new invitee to the Top 10 table this year is the Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh, ranked #6 as against #11 in 2013. Sr. Nisha Lobo, principal of this K-12 CBSE-affiliated school attributes SHSSS’ great leap forward in the rankings to the management’s focus on continuous improvement of teaching-learning standards. “We are pleased that your informed respondents have acknowledged our sustained efforts to ensure that our girls receive world-class education. Our students excel not only in academics but also in sports and extra-curricular activities, and are being nurtured to develop into sensitive and socially aware citizens. The school is actively involved with the local community in Chandigarh with students engaged in several social service projects,” says Lobo. Promoted in 1968, SHSSS has 3,100 students instructed by 110 teachers on its muster rolls.
While the Maharani Gayatri Devi Public School, Jaipur (#8 all-India and #1 in Rajasthan), La Martiniere Girls College, Lucknow (India: #9 and Uttar Pradesh: #1) and NASR School, Hyderabad (India: #10 and Andhra Pradesh: #1) have retained their seats at the Top 10 table, each moving up a notch, the most impressive advance in the public esteem is of Presentation Convent, Jammu, which has been promoted from #20 last year to the India Top 10 girls day schools table this year. Promoted in 1954, the CBSE-affiliated Presentation Convent (also Jammu & Kashmir’s #1 girls day school) hosts 2,500 girl students and 100 teachers.
“Our Top 10 ranking is God’s gift to us in our diamond jubilee year. Since the past 60 years we have been making sustained efforts to provide our girl children an academically rigorous education which also makes them socially sensitive and compassionate. Participation in extra-curricular activities, environment awareness projects and outreach programmes for the poor are integral to our schooling experience. I believe the credit for the recognition given to this school goes to our teachers, students and parents who have all wholeheartedly supported us,” says Sr. Rosamma, principal of the school since 2009.
With the great majority of new primary-secondaries promoted as co-ed institutions, the all-girls day schools league table is dominated by convent/missionary institutions promoted in an earlier era. Prior to the subdivision of the composite day schools league table last year, single sex institutions tended to get lost in the lengthy composite day schools rankings table. Now ranked separately for the second year, all-girls day schools — preferred by conservative and newly middle class households — have acquired a higher public profile.
To see Girls day schools league table visit http://www.educationworld.in/rank-school/all-cities/day-school/girls/2014.html