The vintage and superbly equipped Daly College, Indore has achieved the rare feat of besting one of the increasingly popular alternative education schools inspired by the late seer, savant and educationist J. Krishnamurti, to be ranked #1 this year in the day-cum-boarding category
Ranked second in this category in 2013, the vintage and superbly equipped Daly College, Indore (estb.1882) has achieved the rare feat of besting one of the increasingly popular alternative education schools inspired by the late seer, savant and educationist J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986) viz, The Valley School, Bangalore, to be ranked India’s #1 day-cum-boarding school this year. Top-ranked on the parameters of sports education, internationalism and provision for special needs children, Daly College, whose principal Sumer Singh is actively engaged with representative organisations of premier schools in India and abroad, heads this category which comprises 85 schools across the country. Four schools of the 130-strong nationwide chain of owned and franchised Delhi Public Schools — DPS, R.K. Puram, Delhi (# 3), DPS, Dwarka, Delhi (5), DPS, Vasant Kunj, Delhi (7) and DPS, Noida (10) — are ranked among the country’s Top 10 in this highly competitive category.
The seating arrangement at the Top 10 table has been rearranged with Greenwood High, Bangalore, ranked #9 in 2013 promoted to #6 this year. Moreover, the high-profile Sai International, Bhubaneswar (#7) and Emerald Heights, Indore (8) have improved their rankings but not as dramatically as The Sanskaar Valley School, Bhopal, ranked #32 last year and #9 in 2014.
With alternative ‘guruji’ schools the flavour of the season and overtaking vintage/legacy boarding and day-cum-boarding schools in several categories, Sumer Singh, principal of Daly College, Indore which was obliged to play second fiddle to The Valley School, Bangalore last year, is “vindicated” that the ranking has been reversed in 2014.
“Conventional boarding and day-cum-boarding schools differentiate themselves from alternative schools by the huge emphasis they accord to co-curricular and sports education and their outward-looking, international cultures. As indicated by our top rating under the parameter of sports education, Daly College offers the finest sports education facilities including dedicated grounds for all field sports, the country’s best squash courts, shooting ranges and the best boys and girls teams in several sports. Moreover, we are perhaps the most internationally connected school in Asia as active members of Round Square, AFS — the world’s largest academic exchange organisation — and Global Connections. We are also pioneers in building toilets for girls in government schools under our community service programme,” says Singh.
Niru Agarwal, an economics graduate of Guwahati University and interior designer who stepped off the trodden path to co-promote the K-12 Greenwood High School, Bangalore in 2004, is equally pleased with the steady advancement of this CISCE, CIE and IBO-affiliated school up the EW league tables. Ranked #9 in the category of day-cum-boarding schools in 2013, Greenwood High which has quickly chalked up an aggregate enrolment of 3,200 co-ed students, is ranked #6 nationally and #2 in Karnataka and Bangalore this year.
“Our continuous in-service teacher development programmes and digitisation of teaching-learning processes — we believe we have southern India’s best digital learning facilities among schools — with excellent connectivity between students and teachers have been great factors in improving Greenwood High’s public reputation,” says Agarwal, who adds that a fully international CIE and IBO-affiliated branch of the school is under construction next door and will admit its first batch next September.
Yet perhaps the most spectacular advance in the day-cum-boarding schools category this year has been made by the Sanskaar Valley School set in a picturesque 37-acre campus in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh). Promoted in 2006 by the well-known Dainik Bhaskar media group which publishes 37 Hindi, seven Gujarati and seven Marathi language newspapers and magazines, this state-of-the-art CISCE and CIE- affiliated K-12 co-ed school has 1,940 students including 172 boarders mentored by 182 teachers on its muster rolls. This year Sanskaar Valley, which was ranked a modest #32 in 2013, has risen high in the public esteem (#9) to be elevated to the Top 10 table.
“I am delighted and encouraged by the high ranking that Sanskaar Valley, which is only eight years old, has been given by your respondents. I believe this is attributable to the commitment of our teachers and staff who have pulled out the stops to create a joyous and wholly child-centric environment in this institution. Our commitment to experiential learning, and openness to experimentation by teachers and students are also contributing factors,” says Dr. Amlan Saha, an alumnus of the Visva-Bharati University and former deputy headmaster of the Assam Valley School, who has led Sanskaar Valley since 2008 when he was appointed principal.
Sanskaar Valley is all set to host over 50 member schools of the Round Square international conference this month.
To see India's Top Day-cum-Boarding Schools visit http://www.educationworld.in/rank-school/all-cities/day-school/day-cum-boarding/2014.html