Educating girl children should be a high national priority. And the country’s girls boarding schools do it best. It’s pertinent to note that the total score awarded to top-ranked girls’ boarding schools in EWISR 2023-24 is higher than of top-ranked boys and co-ed boarding schools

Although the globally multiplying woke brigade is unlikely to approve of gender segregated girls schools, in multi-lingual and multi-cultural India which prides itself on ‘unity in diversity’, all-girls schools serve a very useful social purpose. They enable girl children who would otherwise be denied primary-secondary education for socio-cultural or religious reasons, to avail it. Girls boarding schools play a specially important role inasmuch as they transform girl children from conservative or ultra-liberal home environments and provide them secular high quality education supplemented with excellent co-curricular, life skills and sports education that empowers them to blossom into competitive, confident career professionals and often, entrepreneurs.

This is why right from the start when the sui generis EducationWorld India School Rankings (EWISR) were introduced in 2007, gender segregated girls day and especially boarding schools have been accorded high importance in the annual EWISR. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey, India’s female labour participation ratio (FLPR) in the workforce at 29.4 percent is way below the global average, and suffers in comparison with most Asian countries such as China and Singapore. This is one of the major reasons why the Indian economy has failed to record annual GDP growth rates achieved by neighbouring People’s Republic of China and most South-east Asian countries.

Therefore educating girl children should be a high national priority. And the country’s top girls boarding schools equipped with excellent academic, co-curricular activities and sports infrastructure, do it best. It’s pertinent to note that the total score awarded to top-ranked girls’ boarding schools in EWISR 2023-24 is substantially higher than of top-ranked boys and co-ed boarding schools.

Against this promising backdrop, there are very minor changes at the top of the girls boarding schools league table of 2023-34. Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior, which experienced a major infra makeover last year, retains its #1 rank and although it is obliged to share it with Welham Girls, Dehradun, it has been awarded a #1+ rank for extraordinary achievement in the year past which puts it a nose ahead.

Other girls boarding schools in the Top 5 table are Ecole Globale International, Dehradun promoted to #2 (from #3 in 2022-23); Mayo College for Girls, Ajmer #3 (3) jointly with Unison Girls, Dehradun (7); Birla Balika Vidyapeeth, Pilani #4 (5) jointly with Hopetown Girls, Dehradun (4) and Vidyadevi Jindal School, Hisar #5 (6).

Further down, the Heritage Girls School, Udaipur ranked #6 (8); Doon Girls, Dehradun #7 (10); Mody School, Lakshmangarh, Rajasthan #8 (9); Vantage Hall Girls, Dehradun #9 (8) and Shah Satnamji Girls, Sirsa, Haryana #10 (14) complete the Top 10.

Nishi Misra, the articulate principal of Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior (SKVG, estb.1956 by the late Rajmata of Gwalior), which has been awarded 1+ rating for the comprehensive makeover of this routinely high ranked all-girls residential school, is “over the moon” that the management’s large investment in upgrading and modernising SKVG has impressed the EWISR 2023-24 sample respondents.

“We accord high importance to the annual EWISR and make strenuous efforts to improve our performance under parameters in which we receive low scores. For instance, after our disappointing score under safety and hygiene last year, we engaged the services of the US-based G4 Global Co to advise us on ways and means to improve security and hygiene maintenance on our 37-acre campus in the heart of Gwalior. Obviously, the knowledgeable EW sample respondents have learned about this initiative. This year, we have been awarded the highest score under this parameter. I am also delighted with our highest scores under the parameters of teacher competence, co-curricular and sports education. This is evidence that we are providing our girls a near-optimal mix of balanced, holistic education. This read together with our second highest scores under the mental and emotional well-being and community service parameters indicate that our students are receiving an enjoyable and rounded learning experience in SKVG,” says Misra, a history and English alumna of Allahabad University with teaching and admin experience in Sherwood College, Nainital and the Mayoor School, Bhopal, prior to being appointed principal of SKVG in 2010. She modestly declined to comment on the school’s highest score under the leadership/management parameter. Currently, the school has 525 girl students mentored by 55 teachers on its muster rolls.

Likewise Dr. Mona Khanna, the recently appointed principal of the Unison World School, Dehradun (UWS, estb.2007), is “pleasantly surprised” that UWS has been awarded a huge promotion from #7 in 2022-23 to #3 (jointly with Mayo Girls, Ajmer) within six months of her taking charge as principal.

“I am very satisfied with the high scores we have received under all parameters, especially the critical parameters of teacher welfare and development, teacher competence, co-curricular education, individual attention to students and safety and hygiene. We accord the highest importance to teacher development and welfare and maintain a high teacher-pupil ratio of 1:5. Our high scores under the co-curricular education and internationalism and sports education parameters are proof that we provide well-balanced education to our girls. We offer the entire gamut of sports ranging from shooting, tennis, squash, swimming to field games such as football, hockey and cricket to our girls,” says Khanna, who has a Ph D in mathematics from Delhi University and Masters in education from University College London, supplemented with valuable teaching experience in the Jayshree Periwal School, Jaipur (2004-07) and the top-ranked Doon School, Dehradun (2007-18) prior to her appointment as principal in February this year. Currently, this exclusive all-girls boarding school has 444 girl students mentored by 80 teachers on its musters. And its future is bright. In 2021, the Dehradun-based Unison Group signed an agreement with the UK-based Wellington International Partners, which has established high-end schools in the UK, China and Thailand, to jointly promote schools in India.

Among the Top 10 girls residential schools awarded a substantial promotion by this year’s EW sample respondents is Heritage Girls, Udaipur (HGU). Ranked #10 in 2021 and #8 last year, it is ranked #6 with good scores under the parameters of co-curricular education and internationalism, curriculum and pedagogy, pastoral care and mental and emotional well-being services.

Tulasi Bhatia, an English and psychology postgrad of Patna University with teaching experience in the Notre Dame Academy, Patna, St. Joseph’s and Loyola Schools in Patna, and a long stint in the top-ranked Good Shepherd International, Ooty (1999-2011) followed by a period as a Delhi-based education consultant prior to being invited to take charge as founder-principal of HGU, is delighted with this low-profile all-girls boarding school’s steady ascent up the EW league table.

“The annual EW survey of India’s best schools is a very enabling initiative. We study it carefully and make a conscious effort to improve under every parameter of school education excellence. I believe that we should have got higher scores under the parameters of teacher competence, curriculum and pedagogy, sports education and community service. Our teachers are well-trained under our professional development programme and effortlessly switched to digital education during the Covid pandemic. Moreover sports education is accorded high importance in HGU and several of our girls have been selected to represent Rajasthan in national sports and games tournaments. We also have a very successful sports shoes recycling programme under which we have distributed sports shoes to lakhs of disadvantaged rural children. Perhaps these achievements of our girls have not been sufficiently broadcast. We intend to raise our public profile in the years to come,” says Bhatia.

In the shortlist of sufficiently reputed girls boarding schools (institutions evaluated by less than 25 sample respondents are not ranked), several have markedly improved their ranking this year. Among them: Doon Girls International, Dehradun to #7 (10) and the Shah Satnam Ji Girls School, Sirsa (Haryana) to #10 (14). The previously unranked Leeladevi Parasmal Sancheti English Medium Sr. Sec School, Pali (Rajasthan) has debuted at #20.

It’s also noteworthy that several girls’ boarding schools that are modestly ranked in the national league table are high ranked in their host states. For instance, the MCM Kothari International Girls School, Valsad, ranked #12 nationally, has been ranked #1 in Gujarat for several years. Likewise, Avasara Academy, ranked India #13 this year, is numero uno in Maharashtra, India’s most industrialised state (pop.115 million). For parents who don’t want their girls to be sent too far away, state rankings assume considerable significance.

Also read: EducationWorld India’s top girls day schools 2022-23