Page 38 - EW September 2022

Cover Story EW INDIA SCHOOL RANKINGS 2022-23

— musical, bodily-kinesthetic (relat- researchers conducted interviews
ing to dance, sports capabilities), log- in 28 cities across the country. They
ical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial persuaded 14,221 SEC A fees paying
(navigation, visual arts), interpersonal parents, teachers, principals, educa-
(understanding people), intrapersonal tionists and senior school students to
(self-study, self-awareness) and nat- rate the schools they were aware of on
uralist (“high degree of awareness to a ten-point scale under 14 parameters,
distinguish diverse plants, animals, viz, teacher welfare and development,
mountains or cloud configurations in teacher competence, academic repu-
their ecological niche”) — in various tation, co-curricular activities, inter-
combinations, it became abundantly nationalism, individual attention to
clear that schools can be scientifi- students, curriculum and pedagogy
cally chosen to develop the highest (hybrid learning readiness), sports
intelligences of children. Even the IQ education, infrastructure, value for
test developed by French psycholo- money, leadership/management
gist Alfred Binet (1857-1911) and quality, parental involvement, mental
its subsequent variations, including Palety: unprecedented depth & scale & emotional well-being services, spe-
SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), which cial needs education, and community
measure only the linguistic and math- to the public and nation, it has evolved service. Reclusive, low-profile schools
ematical capabilities of students, be- and matured into the world’s largest evaluated by less than 25 sample re-
came inadequate. schools rankings survey, evaluating spondents were eliminated from the
T influenced by the Times most well-reputed primary-secondary by every respondent under each pa-
the relative merits of 4,000 of India’s
ranking process. The score awarded
HEREFORE SOMEWHAT
rameter was totaled to rank schools in
schools segregated into three major
Higher Education and QS
World University Rankings categories — day, boarding and inter- each sub-category,” explains Prem-
national — with several sub-categories
chand Palety, promoter-CEO of the
(WURs), which evaluate the world’s under these main heads to eliminate Delhi-based Centre for Forecasting &
most respected higher education insti- apples and oranges type comparisons. Research Pvt. Ltd (C fore, estb.2000)
tutions on six parameters (academic This year in response to public and which has been conducting the annual
reputation, employer reputation, institutional demand that vintage EWISR for the past 15 years.
faculty-student ratio, international schools with decades of community This elaborate architecture of the
faculty ratio, student body diversity, service are a class apart and should be annual EWISR influenced by the
citations per faculty etc), in 2007 assessed and ranked inter se, vintage multiple intelligences theory, dis-
your editors introduced the Educa- legacy schools are separately ranked tinguishes it from school rankings
tionWorld India School Rank- in each sub-category. surveys abroad, especially in the UK
ings (EWISR) which for the first time This innovation is a continuation which rate and rank schools inter se
rated and ranked the country’s most of your editors’ efforts to make the on a single parameter viz, academic
reputed primary-secondaries under a annual EWISR survey more diverse learning outcomes. After Education-
dozen parameters of school education and inclusive. Over the past 15 years, World pioneered its multi-dimension-
excellence to assess their capability to this annual survey has expanded to al EWISR 15 years ago, several imita-
develop the multiple intelligences of include government day, government tive schools ranking surveys have been
students. boarding, special needs and budget launched by some professedly educa-
Since then over the years, the private schools which admit children tion magazines which have blatantly
number of parameters of K-12 educa- from low-income SEC (socio-econom- plagiarised this publication’s carefully
tion excellence under which schools ic category) B, C and D households. conceptualised parameters of school
are rated, has risen to 14 including To rate and rank the latter schools, excellence. However, all of them lack
teacher welfare and development, a separate sample database of 4,000 the robust field surveys evaluation
teacher competence, infrastructure, respondents comprising parents, stu- methodology that defines the annual
co-curricular and sports education, dents, teachers, principals and edu- EWISR.
parental involvement, academic repu- cationists were interviewed over two The objective of this yearly ex-
tation, curriculum and pedagogy, in- months. ercise is to enable parents to select
ternationalism, mental and emotional “The sheer scale and depth of EW- schools best suited to develop specific
well-being services, among others. ISR 2022-23 is unprecedented in intelligences of their children while
Moreover during the past 15 years India and perhaps worldwide. Over simultaneously providing balanced,
since the first EWISR was presented a period of four months, 122 field well-rounded primary-secondary edu-

38 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2022