Since 2013, the national girls’ legacy boarding schools league table has been dominated by Welham Girls and Mayo College Girls. But in EWISR 2015 this duopoly has been broken
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Although single sex schools are going out of fashion around the world, in India endowed with a multiplicity of religious, caste and cultural minorities, they continue to attract children from conservative households across the country. Not a few parents with traditional mindsets for reasons of their own prefer to send boys, and especially girl children, to single sex schools. Indeed, it can be safely asserted that but for the substantial number of all-girls residential schools, a large number of girl children would be denied the special experience boarding schools offer.
After the EW league tables were rationalised and the country’s most reputed schools were divided into 14 separate categories in 2013 to eliminate apples and oranges type of comparisons, the national girls legacy boarding schools league table has been dominated by the Welham Girl School, Dehradun and Mayo College Girls, Ajmer (Rajasthan) in that order.
“It’s very encouraging and heartening to learn that Welham Girls has retained its position as the country’s top-ranked girls boarding school for the third year. I believe the credit should be given to our proven education traditions and excellent team of teachers. We have bright students who are eager to learn, and have an underlying philosophy that each child deserves the best pastoral care and best learning opportunities in every minute of her stay here. We also have a robust teacher development programme as reflected in your parameter rankings. In Welham Girls, we believe every student has multiple intelligences. Our aim is to try and identify their special intelligences and aptitudes and develop them to the fullest extent,” says Jyotsna Brar, an English and education graduate of Panjab University who was appointed principal of the school in the millennium year (2000) and has played a major role in transforming this legacy (estb. 1957) girls boarding school into a world-class primary-secondary. Ranked #1 on ten of the 14 parameters of education excellence (including leadership and management quality), it has 550 students mentored by 65 teachers on its muster rolls.
However, this year the Welham-Mayo duopoly has been broken with the hitherto low-profile Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior (SKV, estb.1956) promoted to #2 by the 4,259 sample respondents in north India. Rated #1 on the parameter of life skills and conflict management in this category, and second on several others including leadership, and safety and hygiene, SKV which was ranked a modest #21 in 2012 has risen spectacularly in the public esteem during the past three years to be ranked second this year. The Top 5 table is completed by Mayo College Girls, Ajmer tied at #3 with the nexgen superbly-equipped Unison World School, Dehradun (rated #1 on the parameters of infrastructure, and safety and hygiene), Vidya Devi Jindal, Hisar (Haryana) and the Ecole Globale International Girls School, Dehradun.
“I want to warmly thank your informed sample respondents for recognition of our work. It’s a huge motivation to re-dedicate ourselves to the cause of giving an enlightened upbringing to our girls. I believe SKV’s steady rise in the public esteem is largely due to the unique mission of our school: heritage, service, and enterprise. These objectives have been internalised by our teachers, students and the entire SKV community, and invest purpose and relevance to the content and curriculum of the school. Academically as well, our girls have been performing very well, topping in the state for the past three years. Moreover, our unique pastoral care and accountability system for every student has been built through a 12- level confidence-building mechanism,” says Nishi Mishra, a history and education postgrad of Allahabad University and former principal of the next ranked Vidya Devi Jindal School who took charge at SKV in 2010 and is widely credited for developing this CBSE-affiliated all-girls school, which has an aggregate enrolment of 500 students mentored by 55 teachers, into a thoroughly contemporary and progressive class V-XII legacy boarding school.
Shalini Mehrotra, principal of the all-girls Vidya Devi Jindal School, Hisar (VDJS, estb. 1984) which has also been promoted from #6 in 2014 to the Top 5 table (#4), is against according “too much importance” to institutional rankings because she believes that on “track record rather than perceptions”, VDJS deserves a higher ranking.
“Objectively assessed, VDJS has an excellent track record in academics and in keeping our campus free of substance abuse and bullying which are big problems in most residential schools. This is reflected in our top-ranking on the parameter of safety and hygiene. Moreover, given that over 50 percent of our girls are from rural Haryana and Punjab, our CBSE class XII average of 87 percent is excellent, and we are contributing greatly to the education and advancement of girl children in these states where women are traditionally subjugated. My priority is to go beyond our prescribed CBSE and CIE syllabuses and redesign the curriculum of the school by integrating life and finishing school skills into it,” says Mehrotra, who has brought valuable teaching and administrative experience from the high-ranked Assam Valley School, Balipara and The Scindia School (Boys), Gwalior where she rose to the position of vice principal (2011-15) prior to taking charge at VDJS early this year.
Significantly, three of India’s Top 5 girls’ boarding schools are sited in Dehradun (pop. 500,000), which has perhaps the largest cluster of the country’s top-ranked girls’ and boys’ traditional/legacy boarding schools, with the city-based state-of-the-art newly promoted (2012) Ecole Globale International Girls School (EGIGS) completing the Top 5 table. Although this is quite an achievement for a three-year-old institution, Brinda Ghosh, founder-principal of this class IV-XI all-girls school, expresses surprise that EGIGS has yielded one rank this year.
“Because we are a new school, our infrastructure, classroom and lab facilities built with an aggregate investment of over Rs.100 crore, are the best of all schools countrywide. We also accord high importance to games and sports education and employ over ten coaches and instructors. Recently in the Uttarakhand state shooting championships, our girls brought home 63 medals. Academically as well, our CBSE and CIE (UK) curriculums draw upon each other to offer highly advanced education to our students and our teachers are kept abreast with latest pedagogies and learning technologies through continuous teacher development programmes,” says Ghosh, an English and education postgrad of Madurai Kamaraj University who began her teaching career with the Vikasa School run by the Madura Coats company and served with Welham Girls (1996-2003) before being appointed founder principal of the J.G. International School, Ahmedabad (2005-12) and founder principal of EGIGS three years ago.
Further down the girls’ boarding schools league table the Birla Balika Vidyapeeth, Pilani and Mody School, Lakshmangarh (both in Rajasthan) have risen in the public esteem to be jointly ranked #8. But this year’s Top 10 table also includes two debutants — the vintage but low-profile Auckland House, Shimla (#9) and the MCM Kothari International Residential School, Valsad (Gujarat).
“We are overwhelmed on receiving the news that MCMK has been ranked among the country’s Top 10 girls residential schools and #1 in Gujarat. Our visionary chairperson Poojya Swami Shri Hariprasad Dasji has always maintained that “action speaks louder than words”. Therefore from inception, we have maintained a low public profile focusing our attention on building a strong foundation to empower each girl child to achieve her highest potential. The relentless institution-building efforts of our chairperson, constant guidance of our trustees, continuous efforts of the principal and teachers dispensing excellent education to our children in a pristine and serene ambience equipped with modern infrastructure including new technologies-enabled learning, combined with strong emphasis on cultural and spiritual education has yielded this fruitful result,” says Kush Sakaria, secretary of the Valsad-based Shree Vallabh Ashram International Education Centre and the Sree Vallabh Seva Kendra Trust. Currently, the CBSE-affiliated MCMK has 522 girl students and 32 teachers on its muster rolls.
The modestly brief league table of India’s top girls boarding schools is completed by the previously unranked and mint-new Vantage Hall Girls, Dehradun and the Shah Satnam Ji Girls, Sirsa (Haryana) tied at #11, Hopetown Girls, Dehradun, Guru Nanak Fifth Centenary (Girls), Mussoorie, Shigally Hill International, Dehradun, and Heritage Girls School, Udaipur.
To view EW India Girls Boarding Schools Rankings 2015 visit www.educationworld.in/rank-school/all-cities/boarding-school/girls/2015.html