Day-cum-boarding schools are highly valued because they offer parents and children the advantages of living at home plus access to superior infrastructure that boarding schools invariably provide. Little wonder their number is rising every year

In the pioneer annual EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR) league tables, day-cum-boarding schools — whether affiliated with indigenous examination boards or international boards such as IB (Geneva/Hague) or Cambridge International (UK) — occupy a special place. They are highly valued because they offer parents/ students all the advantages of day and well-equipped boarding schools.

The advantages of living at home and receiving parental support plus access to superior infrastructure, especially in terms of co-curricular and sports and games facilities that boarding schools invariably provide, are available to day scholars. Simultaneously, boarders enjoy the advantages of professionally administered pastoral care in addition to 24×7 access to a wide range of co-curricular activities and sports and games facilities. Moreover, day-cum-boarding schools also offer the advantage of greater students and teacher diversity as they attract city-based day scholars as well as boarders from across the country, and in many instances from overseas.

In the circumstances, it’s unsurprising that the number of day-cum-boarding schools — especially in the private education sector — countrywide is rising exponentially every year. Against 162 day-cum boarding primary-secondaries ranked in the 2021-22 league table, the number has risen to 171. In addition to the factors cited above, day-cumboarding schools are also becoming attractive because poor urban planning and massive road traffic jams in cities which involve long commutes for day scholars, is prompting parents to opt for the boarding school option. To accommodate local communities, most day-cum-boarding schools provide weekly boarding and extended day schooling options. Hence their rising popularity and rising number.

Another useful social purpose that the rapidly multiplying number of upscale, well-furbished co-ed day-cum-boarding schools serve is they disburse high-quality, globally benchmarked education in nonmetropolitan cities across the country. With real estate prices in the country’s major metros having risen sky-high, room for expansion and introduction of boarding facilities and infrastructure is limited.

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Therefore for the past few years, the annual EWISR league table of the country’s most admired day-cum-boarding schools has been dominated by schools sited in nonmetro cities such as Bengaluru, Indore, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Jaipur and Hyderabad. Enlightened promoters of top-ranked day-cumboarding schools in non-metros have also served the progressive cause of gender egalitarianism by providing equal education for girl children in an economy in which female participation in the labour force is declining dangerously.

Against this backdrop, superbly equipped, globally benchmarked primary-secondaries with lebensraum sited in tier II-III cities continue to dominate the EWISR 2022-23 coed day-cum-boarding schools league table.

At the very top, there’s a minor change in the seating arrangement with Emerald Heights International School, Indore (EHIS, estb.1984) ranked #2 last year promoted joint #1 with SAI International School, Bhubaneswar (SIS, estb.2006) which retains its 2021-22 top rank. However, this year EHIS has been awarded #1+ ranking for exceptional achievement and improvement and Greenwood High, Bengaluru has been elevated to #2 (from #4 in 2021-22). DPS, R.K. Puram, Delhi routinely ranked among the Top 5, is #3 (2) this year, and the low-profile Pallikoodam School, Kottayam (Kerala) retains its #4 ranking. DPS, Vasant Kunj, Delhi (6) has been promoted to top table and is jointly ranked #5 with the Sanskaar Valley School, Bhopal which retains its last year’s ranking.

I am delighted to learn that EHIS has been voted India’s #1+ co-ed daycum-boarding school by your 15,000 knowledgeable sample respondents. It’s a fulfilment of the dreams of my parents Sunita and Muktesh Singh who invested their life savings in this institution which over the past 40 years, has grown from a primary with seven children into a full-fledged K-12 CBSE, Delhi and AP (Advanced Placements), USA affiliated school with 4,000 students mentored by 770 well-qualified teachers. Since then, the school has expanded its campus to 100 acres and is equipped with the best student-enabling infrastructure countrywide as reflected by our highest score under this parameter

says Siddharth Singh, an alum of Stony Brook University, New York (USA) and director of EHIS.

According to Singh EHIS’ holistic education curriculum is designed to develop the unique special intelligences of every student. “This is reflected in the excellent 82.5 and 85.3 percent average in our class X and XII CBSE board exams this year, and scholarships valued at Rs.80 crore awarded by top-ranked universities in the US, UK, Canada and Japan to our school-leaving students. In sports as well, we offer the best facilities of any school countrywide. This year, we have expanded our athletics track to an eight-lane IAAF  (International Association of Athletics Federation) standards, constructed a new rollerskating velodrome with a bank track and an adventure park with a 55-metre climbing wall. It’s very satisfying that a large number of our students have donned India colours in athletics and several games and sports including tennis, squash, swimming, basketball and shooting,” he adds.

Although EHIS, Indore has been promoted to #1 and has been awarded a + SAI International School, Bhubaneswar which suffered a heavy setback in 2021 when its dynamic promoter-chairman Bijaya K. Sahoo, arguably India’s most wellinformed and knowledgeable K-12 education expert passed away after being struck down by the Covid-19 virus, has done well to retain its # 1 ranking under the able guidance of the widowed Dr. Silpi Sahoo, Ph D. A history and women’s studies alumna of Utkal University and co-promoter of SIS, she has ensured the school retains its premier position in EWISR 2022-23.

Further down the Top 10 table, DPS, Mathura Road, Delhi #6 (7), Neerja Modi School, Jaipur #6 (7) and The Mann School, Delhi #7 (8), Yadavindra Public School, Mohali, Punjab #7 (8) and Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur #8 (11), Maharana Mewar Public School, Udaipur (72) jointly ranked #9 with Central Public School, Udaipur (17) and Shree Sarasswathi Vidhyaah Mandheer (SSVM), Coimbatore (41) #10 jointly with the GeeKay World School, Vellore (16), have all risen in the esteem of the informed public.

A notable feature of this year’s coed day-cum-boarding schools league table is the strong representation of institutions owned and/or franchised by the Delhi Public Schools Society (estb. 1949) — an association of former government bureaucrats and educators — which has licensed over 200 primary-secondary schools countrywide. Evidently, DPS schools have made a favourable impression on the country’s upscale SEC (socioeconomic category) A public who constitute the EW sample respondents’ database.

However although several co-ed day-cum-boarding schools in the Top 10 table have been awarded minor promotions, they pale into insignificance compared with the huge leap forward in public esteem of the Maharana Mewar Public School, Udaipur (MMPS, estb. 1974) promoted to the Top 10 table with #9 ranking cf. #72 in 2021-22. However, this big promotion is to a substantial degree attributable to reclassification of MMPS which hosts 125 boarders, as a day-cum-boarding school this year.

“Since almost 10 percent of our students are boarders and we plan to increase this proportion, we applied for reclassification as a day-cum boarding school. And I am delighted that in the new category, we have debuted among the Top 10. This is our rightful position because of the highly balanced and integrated education we provide our students. A distinguishing feature of MMPS is the high importance we accord to co-curricular education, especially Indian and western classical music. Moreover, we have perhaps India’s largest fine arts school in which our children learn pottery, printing, weaving, needlecraft, quilling and origami among other arts. Nor is this at the expense of academics. Our students have been averaging 90 percent-plus in the CBSE class XII exam for the past 11 years,.

-says Sanjay Datta, an economics and education alumnus of Ajmer University and former professor of teacher development at NCERT’s Regional Institute, Jaipur who signed up with MMPS as principal in 2010.

Another primary-secondary which has made a huge leap forward in the esteem of the knowledgeable public is the hitherto low-profile Shree Sarasswathi Vidhyaah Mandheer, Coimbatore (SSVM, estb. 1998). Unranked until 2021-22 when it was a modest #41, this year it has leapfrogged onto top table with a #10 co-ranking with the well-known GeeKay World School, Vellore and DPS Nacharam, Hyderabad.

With high scores under the parameters of academic reputation, sports education and parental involvement, SSVM is not only ranked among the Top 10 nationally but #1 in the educationally highly-rated peninsular state of Tamil Nadu (pop. 76 million) in the co-ed day-cum-boarding school category.

I’m delighted to receive this news. I attribute this big promotion to the great effort put in by our teachers to switch to online learning during the Covid lockdown and also to the excellent support and cooperation we received — and continue to receive — from our parents’ community. Therefore I am especially pleased with the high scores SSVM has been awarded under the parameters of teacher competence and parental involvement.

-says Dr. Manimekalai Mohan, a science Ph D of Bharathidasan University, Trichy and managing trustee of SSVM.

Promoted as a playschool for 25 children in 1998, it has expanded into a CBSE-affiliated co-ed day-cumboarding school with a current enrolment of 1,500 students — including 700 boarders — mentored by 270 teachers. Moreover, the SSVM Group comprises eight CBSE schools in Coimbatore with an aggregate enrolment of 10,000 children.

Beyond the Top 10, while the superbly-equipped Royal Global School Guwahati has retained its #11 India and # 1 Assam ranking, several low-profile schools have risen in the esteem of the informed public in 2022-23. Among them: ODM Public School, Bhubaneshwar promoted to # 11 from #14 in 2021-22; Sunbeam School Bhagwanpur, Varanasi #15 (19); Kuriakose Elias English Medium School, Kottayam which has leaped forward to #16 (50); Sunbeam School, Varuna, Varanasi #17 (21); K.C Public School, Jammu #18 (29) jointly ranked with Contai Public School, Purba, Medinipur (28); DPS, Vijaywada #17; DPS, Durgapur #22 (31) jointly ranked with Tolins World School, Aluva, Ernakulam; and DPS Guwahati #20 (21).

Further down the league table of India’s most admired day-cum-boarding schools, there’s been considerable churn. This year GD Goenka Signature School, Raipur has made an impressive ascent to #23 (53); Doon International School, Dehradun #23 (37); Accord School Tirupati #25 (32); Rungta Public School, Bhilai #30 (36); Treamis World School, Bengaluru #32 (49) and Little Rock Indian School, Udupi (Karnataka) #34 (43).

It’s also important to note that schools that are modestly placed in the national league table tend to be highly ranked in their host states, most of which are larger and more populous than European countries. As stated above, three Sunbeam Schools in the holy city of Varanasi are ranked #1-3 in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous (215 million) state of the Indian Union.

Similarly DPS, Siliguri ranked #12 in India, is top-ranked in West Bengal (pop.93 million); Sanjay Ghodawat International, Kolhapur ranked India’s #25 co-ed day-cum-boarding school is #1 in Maharashtra (pop.115 million). Likewise Vallabh Ashram’s MGM Amin & VN Savani School, Valsad India #53 is #1 in the western seaboard state of Gujarat (pop. 63 million). Indeed for day schools — including day-cum boarding institutions — city and state rankings in that order are perhaps more important than national rank.

For the complete table: EW India School Rankings 2022-23 – Top & best schools in India

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