The enthusiastic response of school promoters, trustees, principals and teachers to the 12th EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR) 2022-23 Awards conclave which concluded in Gurgaon (Delhi NCR) on October 12, is proof that the tectonic plates of the country’s moribund K-12 education system are shifting. Over 1,400 leaders of the country’s most reputed schools listed in 24 league tables of EWISR 2022-23 thronged the largest conference hall of the Leela Ambience Hotel, Gurgaon to receive trophies, certificates and encomiums for topping the national, state and city rankings in EWISR 2022-23.

It’s pertinent to note that the architecture and design of the annual EWISR differs radically from schools ranks surveys in the US and UK where ranks are determined on a single parameter of excellence: learning outcomes of children. On the other hand, based on the premise that there’s more to schooling than academics, EWISR rates schools on 14 parameters of education excellence including teacher welfare and development, faculty competence, leadership, infrastructure, individual attention to students (teacher-pupil ratio), co-curricular and sports education, community service record, among others.

Emphatic approval of the EWISR evaluation methodology is proof that the educators’ community is increasingly accepting the basic premise of our rankings surveys that progressive schools pay attention to several parameters of institutional excellence to develop the multiple intelligences of children.

Moreover, unlike other school ranking surveys which are subjective or based on the evaluation of small juries, EWISR is the outcome of an extensive annual field survey stretching over four months. Every year since 2007, field personnel of our partner and reputed market research agency Centre for Forecasting & Research (C fore), Delhi, have been interviewing over 14,000 sample respondents (parents, principals, teachers and senior students) to award scores (100-200) to schools of which they are aware under 14 parameters. These scores are totaled to rank schools.
The objective of detailing the sui generis EWISR architecture and design is to drive home the point that enthusiastic response of school educators to the recently concluded EWISR 2022-23 survey and subsequent awards function, is acknowledgment of the imperative of providing children well-rounded, balanced primary-secondary education which develops their multiple intelligences.

This is an important mindset change which is a good augury for the world’s largest child and youth population.