A representative sample of 303 SECA preschool parents and teachers/principals has voted Podar Jumbo Kids, Santacruz the city’s #1 preschool ending the three-year reign of Kangaroo Kids, Bandra. Here are Mumbai’s top ranked preschools 2013:

Until the Advent of the New Millennium, awareness of the vital foundational importance of professionally administered early childhood care and education (ECCE) was restricted to westernised upper classes residing in south Bombay (as Mumbai was nomenclatured until 1995) and the upscale suburb of Bandra. For instance, the low-profile West Wind preschool in elite Breach Candy (which has since relocated to Gamdevi) was established in 1947, and for the first three years since the unprecedented introduction of the annual Education-World India Preschool Rankings in 2010, Mumbai’s #1 preschool has been Kangaroo Kids (estb.1993), Bandra.

However after the historic liberalisation and deregulation of the Indian economy in 1991 resulted in the fast-track growth and expansion of the suburban middle class in metropolitan India, the number of play and nursery schools in the suburbs of urbs prima in Indis has multiplied dramatically with  new capital-intensive preschools offering excellent infrastructure, and professional care and management. This shift of Mumbai’s epicentre to newly gentrified suburbs is reflected for the first time in the EW Mumbai Preschool Rankings 2013, with a sample respondents’ base of 230 preschool parents and 73 teachers rating and ranking Podar Jumbo Kids, Santacruz (W) (PJKSW, estb. 2000) Mumbai’s premier pre-primary this year.

Promoted in the millennium year 2000 by committed ECCE magnate Pavan Podar who has established a network of 167 Podar Jumbo Kids preschools across the country under the owned and franchised model, the proprietorial PJKSW is the largest institution of the  network with an aggregate enrollment of 1,250 children aged 3-5, mentored by 85 teachers. Furbished with state-of-the-art infrastructure including a research lab and teacher training facility, and connected with the global ECCE community through its membership of the World Forum Foundation of top-ranked preschools in 70 countries around the world, PJKSW has steadily moved up in the EW annual rankings from #12 in 2010 to #2 last year and #1 in 2013. Rated #1 on six parameters — individual attention to students, teacher competence, teacher welfare and development, infrastructure, innovative teaching, and leadership quality — PJKSW has outranked Kangaroo Kids, Bandra, for the first time in four years.

“I am delighted that the informed public of Mumbai has ranked PJKSW the city’s #1 preschool this year. I believe a great measure of the credit for our steady rise in public esteem must accrue to our trustee Dr. Pavan Podar, who has spared no time or resources to continuously upgrade and improve this school, and also to the dedicated teachers and staff who are committed to continuous learning. I am especially pleased that on the vital parameters of teacher competence, teacher welfare, and innovative teaching, PJKSW has been ranked first,” says Swati Popat-Vats, a sociology, law, and education postgraduate of Bombay University who signed up with Pavan Podar in 2000 and currently is founder-president of the Podar Jumbo Kids national network. Popat Vats is also the founder-chairperson of the Early Childhood Association of India (estb. 2010) which has a membership of 970 preschools across the country. Unsurprisingly, PJKSW is also ranked #1 on the parameter of leadership quality — respondents’ tribute to Popat-Vats’ proactive role in upgrading ECCE.

Also read: Early childhood care & education – Swati Popat Vats

Although pipped at the post, Kangaroo Kids, Bandra founded by UK and Australia-educated ECCE pioneer Lina Asher in 1993, has come a strong second and together with Casa Bambino which retains its #3 rank, Leapbridge International, Sion (#4) (which makes it into the Top 5 table for the first time) and Little Bo Peep, Khar (West) make up the Top 5. In particular, the less known Little Bo Peep (LBP, estb.1974) has somewhat belatedly risen in public estimate, which has leapfrogged it from #17 in 2012 to the Top 5 table this year.

“I am pleasantly surprised by the high ranking given to our school because we have maintained a low profile all these years. Nevertheless it’s encouraging to learn that informed parents and educationists are appreciative of LBP’s ‘Start ahead, stay ahead’ ECCE programme. Although this is an academically inclined preschool providing values-based education from the early years, we take pains to ensure our children learn joyously and out of interest in a warm, interactive and secure environment,” says Poonam Mirchandani, an English and sociology graduate of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai who started LBP four decades ago in her garage in suburban Khar for two students. Ranked above its overall #5 on the parameters of individual attention to students, infrastructure, teacher welfare and development, innovative teaching, special needs education and value for money (#2), LBP (tuition fee: Rs.75,000-80,000 per annum), which moved to spacious new premises with outdoor play areas in 2003, has 300 tiny tots aged 1-5 (taught in three shifts for “road traffic management purposes”) nurtured by 24 teachers on its muster roll.

In the bottom half of the EW Mumbai preschools 2013 league table, the previously unranked The Tree House, Kandivali (E) has made an impressive debut at #13. Conversely, Sophia Nursery (#11), Sunflower Nursery (#14), Little Palms (#17) and Headstart (#19) — all in south Mumbai — have been moved down this year’s league table. The shift of geo-political power towards Mumbai’s western suburbs is clearly reflected in the EW Mumbai Preschool Rankings 2013.

To read Mumbai’s best preschools league table visit http://www.educationworld.in/rank-preschool/mumbai/2013.html