Over a period of four months, a sample respondents database of 12,367 educationists, principals, teachers, parents and students in 27 cities countrywide were interviewed by 127 field staff of the Delhi-based C fore, to rate and rank the country’s Top 1,000 primary-secondaries
– Dilip Thakore & Summiya Yasmeen

Yes, folks, it’s that time of the year when our most eagerly awaited issue of EducationWorld presents its ranking of the country’s Top 1,000 (out of 1.4 million) primary-secondary schools. As this is an annual event, it’s an elaborate exercise.

Over a period of four months, a sample respondents database of over 12,000 educationists, principals, teachers, parents and senior school students in 27 cities countrywide, were interviewed by 127 field representatives of the well-known Delhi-based market research and opinion polls company Centre for Forecasting and Research Pvt. Ltd (C fore, estb.2000), and persuaded to rate primary-secondary schools in their region (east, west, north, south) on 14 parameters of education excellence (faculty competence, teacher welfare and development, academic reputation, co-curricular education, sports education, infrastructure provision, leadership, internationalism etc). The scores awarded by the sample respondents under each parameter have been totalled to rank schools divided into 14 categories, viz, day (co-ed, day-cum-boarding, boys, girls); legacy boarding schools (co-ed, boys, girls) and international schools (day, day-cum-boarding and wholly residential); government schools (day, boarding); budget private and special needs schools. The categories are comprehensive and cover all types of primary-secondaries countrywide and prevent apples and oranges type of comparisons. 

The methodology of the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR) is spelt out upfront in some detail because ever since the first ranking of India’s most respected schools was pioneered by this publication in 2007, several other pretender online and offline publications have also begun to rate and rank schools on deceptively similar parameters. However, it’s important to note that while the annual EW league tables of the country’s best primary-secondaries are based upon the opinions of a national sample of 12,367 knowledgeable respondents which involves several months of field work, the rankings of our competitors tend to be jury-based, i.e, selections of half a dozen or so people sitting in a room. 

Therefore the EW annual rankings are considerably more objective and representative of a broad sample of informed public opinion. And it’s a measure of the impartiality and objectivity of the EW India School Rankings that schools which routinely top our league tables — Rishi Valley, Welham Girls, The Doon School, Dhirubhai Ambani, Woodstock etc, seldom, if ever, advertise themselves in EducationWorld. 

“With 12,367 educationists, principals, teachers and senior students in 27 cities across the country including Nagpur, Jamshedpur, Vadodara, Kanpur, Jammu, Faridabad and Ghaziabad apart from the metros and state capitals, this year’s survey to rate and rank the country’s best schools is the largest and most widespread in Indian history with which no other poll can claim equivalence. Moreover, while for rating and ranking private schools we have interviewed sample respondents in SEC (socio-economic category) ‘A’, it’s important to note that for assessing the country’s best government and budget schools, we have interviewed parents in SEC ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’. To rank schools under each of the 14 categories, the scores awarded by every sampled respondent under each parameter were totalled to arrive at the rankings. Low-profile schools assessed by less than 25 respondents in each region are not included in the league tables,” says Premchand Palety, an alumnus of Punjab Engineering College and the Fore B-school who put in a long stint with the Operations Research Group — India’s pioneer retail market research company — prior to promoting C fore in the millennium year. C fore’s client list includes several political parties, Hindustan Times, Mint and Nestle, among other well-known corporates. 

“Schools across the country certainly look forward to the annual EWISR, because your league tables enable them to compare themselves with their peers not only in terms of overall rankings, but across several parameters. Therefore, your league tables serve a useful purpose inasmuch as they stimulate schools to improve. However, I’m not sure that parents use the EW tables to choose their children’s schools. They still prefer to rely on historical factors and word of mouth information while choosing schools for their children, which is an unscientific way of making a very crucial decision. The annual EWISR certainly help parents to short-list the most suitable schools for further investigation and final choice. To that extent, they are very useful for parents as well,” says Shomie Das, the highly knowledgeable former principal of The Doon School, Dehradun, Lawrence School, Sanawar and Mayo College, Ajmer, all of which are routinely ranked among the country’s Top 5 in their categories.    

In the pages following, we present the EducationWorld India School Rankings 2017-18 league tables rating and ranking the country’s Top 1,000 schools in 14 different categories. Moreover, it’s pertinent to note that the country’s Top 1,000 schools are ranked nationally, and also in their states and cities. State and city rankings are important because most of India’s states are equivalent in size and population to European and African countries. Therefore, a Top 10 ranking in the states is no mean achievement. Ditto high rank in cities, especially for day schools. Indeed for day co-ed (which constitute the great majority) schools, city league tables are presented first, followed by state and national rankings. 

To view EW India Schools Rankings 2017, please visit: http://www.educationworld.in/rank-school/2017/