Following subdivision of the boarding schools league table into three categories, The Doon School, Dehradun has regained its position as Indias most respected all-boys boarding school
With the colonial tradition of single sex boarding schools gradually dying out in favour of healthier co-ed institutions, the league table of sufficiently well-known all-boys boarding schools is restricted to 24 primary-secondaries following disaggregation and sub-division of traditional/legacy boarding schools into three categories. And inevitably, the table is headed by the highly-respected The Doon School, Dehradun (TDS, estb. 1935) which because it was promoted shortly before independence, has a more balanced, liberal and inclusive tradition than some of the older boarding schools with histories of exclusion and discrim-ination. As such, Doon has been the preferred boarding school of the business, bureaucratic and political elites of post-independence India.
However, during the past three years, the prime position of Doon had been successfully challenged by the co-ed, new age Rishi Valley School, Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh), which has captured the imagination of the SECA sample respondents of the annual EW India School Rankings. But with Rishi Valley shifted to the co-ed category, Doon has regained its position as the countrys most admired all-boys boarding school.
Although they are becoming unfas-hionable, theres a good case for single sex schools. In the UK, where scores of schools in secondary and higher secondary board exams are routinely published and receive wide publicity, all-girls schools invariably top the league tables, followed by all-boys and co-ed schools in that order. Therefore there is a rational basis for the division of day and boarding schools into categories to facilitate comparison. Consequently Im not unhappy about your survey format, and Im particularly pleased about TDS high ratings/rankings on the parameters of internationalism and pastoral care, says Peter Mclaughlin an alumnus of the London School of Economics and former principal of the British Inter-national School, Cairo, who was appointed headmaster of Doon in 2009 following a global search.
Roy Robinson, the cheerful and highly experienced headmaster of the Bishop Cotton School (BCS), Shimla is also satisfied with the subdivision of boarding schools into rational categ-ories which enable apples with apples assessment and comparisons. Boys boarding schools were pioneers in away-from-home education and they have their own character and traditions. Over the past half century since indep-endence, we have built upon our strong holistic education foundations and traditions and acquired a unique Indian character. Therefore I am particularly happy that we have scored high on the   parameters of sports education and on the newly introduced measures of internationalism and pastoral care, says Robinson who was principal at St. Peters School, Panchgani, and Stanes School, Coimbatore prior to being appointed principal of BCS in 2004.
Subdivision and disaggregation of institutions for purposes of egalitarian comparison and evaluation have also benefited the true-blue Mayo College, Ajmer which has improved its ranking from #8 last year to #3 in 2013, The Scindia School, Gwalior (#10 to 4); Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun (#12-5), Birla Public School, Pilani (#10-6), Welham Boys, Dehradun (#16-6), and also a host of other previously under-rated legendary boarding schools including traditional rivals St. Josephs, North Point and St. Pauls, Darjeeling.
However one institution which has sprung into the limelight having received the full benefit of the sub-division of boarding schools into three separate categories, is the Sarala Birla Academy (SBA), Bangalore whose ranking of #30 in the composite league table has leaped forward to #7 in the all-boys school table this year. This is specially  commendable because the Delhi-based CISCE, IBO (Geneva) and CIE, UK-affiliated SBA admitted its first batch of students in 2005. Highly rated on the parameters of infrastructure and pastoral care, during the past ten years SBA has quickly established itself as Karna-takas and Bangalores #1 all-boys boarding school.
Shanatanu Das, a physics alum of the globally renowned Shantiniketan University who taught in Assam Rifles Public School, Shillong for two decades (1986-2006) and was principal of Aditya Birla Public School, Renusagar (UP) for three years (2006-09) prior to being appointed principal of Sarala Birla Academy, Bangalore in 2009, supports the new subdivided EW India School Rankings format. As a principal who has experience of single sex and co-ed schools, Im well aware that their institutional culture and management challenges are completely different. Therefore it makes good sense to evaluate them separately. I believe the #7 rank of SBA more accurately reflects the excellent progress this young school has made in delivering holistic education to our 380 students most of whom will emerge as leaders in all walks of life, says Das.
Another low profile school far from the countrys well-known education hubs, which has debuted on the national stage as a consequence of subdivision and reclassification is the previously unran-ked CBSE-affiliated all-boys, wholly residential Atmiya Vidya Mandir School (AVM), Surat, Gujarat, a Hindu faith-based school promoted in 2004 by the Surat-based Yogi Divine Society. Sited on a  10 acre green campus on the outskirts of Surat, AVM has a large contingent of students from the global Gujarati diaspora, and children of differing ethnicities interested in the schools academic programme supple-mented with an Indian culture co-curriculum.
We are pleasantly surprised that your informed respondents appreciate the work we are doing in this very young school. We have invested subs-tantial planning, resources and effort in establishing AVM as a school which offers contemporary academic education rooted in Indian values, says Dr. Vijay Patel, a physics alumnus of IIT-Bombay and Stony Brook University, New York. In 2011, Patel resigned as research professor at Stony Brook and returned to India to take charge as principal of AVM, which has 525 boys mentored by 58 teachers on its muster rolls.
To see India’s best boys boarding schools league table see
https://www.educationworld.in/rank-school/all-cities/boarding-school/boys/2013.html