Responding to a frequent criticism that the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings were entirely based on perceptions, despite the recalcitrance of the Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) to officially release data relating to the actual performance of affiliated schools in their (classes XII and X) board exams, with the help and cooperation of Prashant Bhattacharji, a Hyderabad-based software engineer and data analyst, last year we published a league table indicating the actual performance of Top 100 schools in CISCE™s class XII (ISC) examination held countrywide in March 2013.
This year, we have gone one better despite the failure of CBSE to respond to an RTI notice to provide the actual performance data of schools affiliated with it. Once again drawing on Bhattacharji™s new technologies and data analytics expertise, we have included the class XII exam results (English plus best four subjects) of CBSE schools listed in the EW India School Rankings 2014 league tables.

œLeague tables detailing the factual results of schools in board exams are routinely published by exam boards abroad because they promote inter-school competition, give teachers due recognition when their students perform well, and enable parents to choose the best schools for their children. My technology background and experience enabled me to source data from multiple sources to compile tables detailing the actual performance of a large number of CBSE and CISCE schools, with some administrators personally submitting data to me in the public interest. While engaging in this exercise, I have discovered shocking statistical evidence of erratic scores manipulation by both these pan-India boards. This perhaps explains their reluctance to share data, says Bhattacharji, an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur who acquired valuable work experience in Lehman Bros, India and Microsoft, USA before returning to India in 2010. Currently a data scientist at InterviewStreet Pvt. Ltd, he also manages a website christened   ThelearningPoint.net.

In this issue of EducationWorld, we have not only included the actual average performance of all schools (except state board-affiliated institutions) in an add-on column of the perceptual league tables, but also separately feature tables of the Top 100 CBSE and CISCE schools based on the results of all 1,823 CISCE and 5,346 (out of 8,600) CBSE schools. However, only schools which sent batches in excess of 70 to write the school-leaving exams have been included in the Top 100 rankings. For factual averages of other schools, please refer to the main league tables.

Click to view the Top 100 Schools