Although single gender schools are going out of fashion, they have changed with the times and continue to remain popular with conservative middle class households determined to provide their progeny a good start in life
Dominated by Dehradun-based The Doon School (TDS, estb. 1935), the league table of India’s top boys’ boarding schools has not experienced much change in 2016, except that the neighbouring Welham Boys’ ranked #3 last year, has been elevated to share second rank with the Shimla-based Bishop Cotton School which achieved the singular feat of toppling TDS two years ago (2014). Mayo College, Ajmer, The Scindia School, Gwalior and the Sarala Birla Academy, Bangalore have retained their ranking at the Top 5 table in that order.
Although single gender schools modelled after the renowned public schools of Britain are going out of fashion with the country’s fast-expanding newly-rich households increasingly attracted to new genre international schools affiliated with offshore examination boards, India’s best public (i.e, private, exclusive) boys and girls boarding schools with decades — even centuries — of tradition have changed with the times and remain popular with conservative middle class households determined to provide their progeny a good start in life. Apart from rigorous, disciplined primary-secondary education, because of their location in the hills, they also offer the advantages of clean air as also excellent sports and co-curricular education facilities.
“Of course, I’m delighted that TDS is ranked India’s #1 all-boys boarding school in the EW India School Rankings 2016 for the second year consecutively. Having just been appointed headmaster, I can’t claim any credit for it. It’s the outcome of the hard work and dedication of the school’s talented teachers and previous head Dr. Peter Mclaughlin. However, I intend to carry on their good work and we’ll be introducing a new curriculum for classes VII-X and innovations in teaching, learning and pastoral care that will enable the school to improve continuously. We are an all-India school for exceptional boys from all backgrounds and we need to be exceptional for them,” says Matthew Raggert, an alumnus of Newcastle (UK) and Charles Stuart (Australia) universities who served as principal of the Leipzig (Germany) International School’s secondary section before he took charge as headmaster of TDS on July 1. Registered in 1935 by former Bengal advocate-general Satish Ranjan Das as a nationalist response to boarding schools established in India by British educationists, the wholly residential class VI-XII CISCE Delhi, CIE (UK) and IBO (Geneva)-affiliated TDS has 586 boys and 74 teachers on its muster rolls (tuition fee: Rs.10 lakh per year).
Gunmeet Bindra, principal of Welham Boys’ School (estb.1937), is perhaps more satisfied with the second rank awarded by the 3,939 sample respondents in north India to Welham Boys’ in the EW India School Rankings 2016. Ever since she was a surprise appointee as the first woman principal of a major all-boys boarding school in 2011, Welham Boys’ has been steadily moving up in the EW boys boarding schools league table from #6 in 2013 to #3 last year and #2 in 2016. It’s especially noteworthy that Welham Boys’ is ranked #1 under the parameter of leadership of all boarding schools — girls and co-ed included. Quite clearly, another male bastion has been breached by woman power.
“This is a proud moment for Welham Boys’ which has steadily been moving towards the top of the annual EW rankings. Although it’s an honour for me to have been at the helm during this phase, this wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the board of governors of the school and our chairman, Mr. Darshan Singh. With several new teachers inducted into the school during the past couple of years, there’s an excellent blend of experience and youth in our faculty. This encourages students to discuss their hopes, dreams and concerns with teachers, forming the basis of an enriching and mutually beneficial relationship,” says Bindra, an alumna of the Delhi School of Economics and Calcutta University, founder-principal of DPS, Jalandhar and Kanpur and former principal of Vidya Devi Jindal School, Hisar (2007-11) before she was appointed principal of Welham Boys’ in 2011.
But although Welham Boys’ has risen in the public esteem over the past year under Bindra’s leadership, this 79-year-old school shares its second-spot with Bishop Cotton School, Shimla (estb.1859) led by its highly experienced headmaster Roy Robinson.
A notable feature of the 2016 boys boarding schools league table is that three schools promoted by the well-known business house of Birla have made it into the Top 10. The fifth ranked Sarala Birla Academy, Bangalore apart, Birla Vidyamandir, Nainital (estb.1947) ranked #7 (#9 in 2015) and the Birla Public School, Vidya Niketan, Pilani (estb.1944) are among the Top 10 this year. Meanwhile the #1 boys boarding school in the western seaboard state of Gujarat for the second successive year 
is the Atmiya Vidya Mandir, Surat, ranked #9 this year (#14 in 2015).
“It’s very encouraging that the EW sample respondents have acknowledged the efforts of all stakeholders — teachers, students and parents — to raise standards across the board in our low profile school. Our sincerity and commitment to the institution is behind our higher ranking every year. Right now our heritage campus is undergoing extensive renovation to contemporise and benchmark Birla Vidyamandir globally. In academics as well we have introduced a new teaching-learning programme, while rifle shooting is a recently introduced sports activity,” says Anil Sharma, a physics and education postgraduate of Delhi and M.D. University, Rohtak, former principal of the Sanskriti School, Ajmer, Gyan Bharati, Delhi and deputy headmaster of Lawrence Lovedale, who was appointed principal of Birla Vidyamandir, Nainital in 2011.
Further down the 25-strong boys boarding schools league table, West Bengal’s most famous boarding schools — St. Joseph’s (#11) and St. Paul’s (#12), both in Darjeeling — are neck-and-neck again while the Bhaktivedanta Gurukula & International School (#16) maintains its position as the top-ranked boys boarding school of Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state (215 million).
To view EW India Boys Boarding Schools Rankings visit http://www.educationworld.in/rank-school/all-cities/boarding-school/boys/2016.html