Page 70 - EducationWorld Oct. 2022

Cover Story EW BOYS BOARDING SCHOOLS RANKINGS 2022 23

D a s , a successful Calcutta-based bar-
T
rister to promote h e D oon S c h ool
D e h ra du n ( T D S ) in 1935 for male
children of newly-emerging Indian
elites. Drawing heavily on the model
of Britain’s best ‘public’ (i.e, private,
exclusive) boys boarding schools,
TDS began its innings with a British
headmaster Arthur Foot, drawn from
Eton College and was overtly inspired
by nationalistic impulses of India’s
freedom movement which was gather-
ing momentum at the time. Superbly
managed and nurtured by successive
boards comprising high-ranked Indi-
an civil servants after India attained
freedom from British rule in 1947, and
administered by successive British
headmasters until 1970, TDS became
the boys boarding school of choice of
the Indian elite. Students included
Rajiv and Sanjay Gandhi, grandchil- SBA’s Santanu Das (centre left): rational classification
dren of prime minister Jawaharlal Ne-
hru among other notables of the civil that S . R . D a s , founder-promoter of “I regret the confusion about our
service and India Inc. the school, was driven by nationalist classification, but TDS which was
Unsurprisingly since the unprec- impulses to establish TDS which can- born out of strongest nationalistic
edented EWISR league tables were not and should not, be classified as an impulses can never be classified as an
introduced in 2007, TDS has been international institution. Even though international school. Therefore, I am
ranked India’s #1 boys boarding it’s an IB (Geneva)-affiliated school, grateful that EW and C fore took the
school, except in one year (2020). it is also affiliated with CISCE, Delhi tough call and restored us to the ap-
Because ill-advisedly, the TDS board and the majority of students are in the propriate league table and our rightful
turned the clock back in the new mil- CISCE stream. In the circumstances, position,” says Singh.
lennium and appointed two British and also given that even within the Dr. Singh who was appointed to
headmasters of no special distinction category of international residential the headmaster’s office during the
— Peter Mclaughlin (2009-16) and schools it was awarded the highest height of the pandemic after Raggett
Matthew Raggett (2016-20) — dur- total score and rank, the rating agency was abruptly sacked in 2020 by the
ing whose reign the school suffered C fore and your editors restored TDS board of governors while on holiday
considerable reputation erosion, al- to the boys boarding school category. abroad, is satisfied that the school has
though not top rank in the annual But since W e l h a m B oy s , D e h ra - emerged unscathed and stronger from
EWISR. du n was already apprised of its #1 the pandemic lockdown. “Even prior
However, Raggett’s declared in- ranking, TDS is co-ranked #1 + in to the lockdown, TDS had begun to in-
tention to transform the CISCE EWISR 2022-23. tegrate new digital technologies into
(Delhi)-affiliated TDS into a wholly Given these twists and turns and our classrooms in a big way. There-
international primary-secondary af- confusion about classification and fore, the switch to online teaching-
filiated with the Geneva-based Inter- resolution of the problem, it’s unsur- learning was a smooth transition for
national Baccalaureate examinations prising that D r. J a g p re e t S i g h , our teachers and students, and served
n
board, and the fact that more higher alum of Rajasthan University, Jaipur the useful purpose of accelerating the
secondary students wrote the IB di- and former principal of the low-pro- digital process. This is reflected by our
P
P
ploma school-leaving exam this year, file u n j a b u b l ic S c h ool , N a b h a excellent score under the parameter of
prompted our partner organisation C which he nurtured into a national Top curriculum and pedagogy and digital
fore to classify TDS as an internation- 10 co-ed boarding school during his readiness. The top scores awarded to
al school for EWISR 2022-23. ten-year stint there and appointed us under the competence of faculty
This gave rise to strident protest headmaster of TDS in 2020, is “hum- and infrastructure parameters are
from TDS leaders and the incumbent bled” by the #1+ rating awarded to also testimony to TDS having emerged
and former headmasters who argued this venerable boys boarding school. stronger after the Covid-19 lockdown.

72 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2022