Page 38 - EW October 2025

Cover Story EW INDIA SCHOOL RANKINGS 2025-26

BUDGET PRIVATE SCHOOLS SPECIAL NEEDS and most comprehensive sui generis
1+ Mukarram Jah School, Hyderabad 1 SPJ Sadhana School, Mumbai primary-secondary schools ranking
1 St. Mary’s High School, Kalyan, Mumbai 2 The Aditya Birla Integrated School, survey. And driven by the same spirit
2 Muni International School, Delhi Mumbai of continuous improvement which is
3 Nagarjuna High School, Kadapa 3 Sankalp, Chennai the purpose of the annual EWISR, we
4 Kennedy School, Guntur 3 Aatman Academy, Thane are also continuously learning and
4 Kotak Lead School, Kharagpur (WB) 4 Tamana Autism Centre — School of improving.
5 Little Star English School, Guwahati Hope, Delhi “For the past two years since we
5 Jhunjhunu Academy 5 Vidyaniketan Academy, Bengaluru were commissioned to conduct the
5 Pragati School, Ahmedabad 5 Brindavan Education Centre, Jayanagar, EWISR survey, we have chosen the
6 Don Bosco High School, Dombivali (W), Bengaluru quality over quantity option. Under
Mumbai 6 Sanchetna, Noida this strategy we have reduced the
6 SR Capital Public School, Naveen 6 Sunderji Institute of Special School, Pune number of interviewees from previ-
Shahdara, Delhi 7 Academy for Severe Handicaps and ous years. Instead we have improved
7 Little Flower Matriculation Hr Sec School, Autism (ASHA), Bengaluru the quality of interaction with sample
Chennai 7 Connect Academy, Nashik respondents responding to a fully
8 Sukhpal Senior Secondary School, Ugala 8 The Blue Bells School for Integrated structured questionnaire with re-
9 Hari Vidya Bhawan Sr Secondary School, Learning, Gurugram sponses registered online. We have
Delhi 9 Alpha to Omega, Chennai also eliminated group and cluster
10 Springdale Public School, Kurukshetra 9 Mamta Mandir School, Navsari (Gujarat)
10 Priyadarshani School (SSC Board), 10 Bethany Society’s Jyoti Sroat Inclusive interviews directing our research
Indrayani Nagar, Pune School, Shillong personnel to conduct one-on-one
10 Jai Vakeel School, Mumbai face-to-face, telephone and/or online
L AST MONTH YOUR ed- two decades, the annual EWISR has greater accuracy and authenticity of
interviews. This has contributed to

the interviewer-respondent interac-
had the impact of instilling institu-
itors presented Part-I
tion. Interviews were conducted with
tional pride in schools — especially
of the Education-
World India School
34 cities across 22 states,” says Shub-
Rankings (EWISR) 450,000 private sector schools which 9,500 knowledgeable respondents in
mentor 48 percent of the country’s
2025-26 rating and 260 million in-school children, and hra Mishra, Founder-Director of AZ
ranking India’s most admired Day — are the preferred choice of India’s Research Partners. An alumna of IIM-
co-ed, day-cum-boarding, boys and large (432 million) middle class. This Lucknow, Mishra acquired a decade’s
girls — schools. is a valuable public benefit because experience in market research (MARG,
Ab intio since the annual EWISR when school leaders, principals, and MARG-ORG) and in the corporate sec-
was introduced in 2007, our survey teachers strive to improve their rank- tor (Titan, Tata Tea and Blackstone
methodology has been to commission ing, the outcome is whole school im- Synovate) before she co-promoted AZ
an independent market research firm provement. Inevitably, given strong Research Partners in 2002.
— for eliminating editorial subjectiv- foundational K-12 education, a new Moreover in response to feedback
ity — to compile a database of school generation of young citizens are set- that some excellent, well-managed
education stakeholders (parents, ting new standards of leadership in schools were dominating EWISR
teachers, educationists) and persuade politics, industry and the professions. league tables year after and clouding
them to award scores of 100-200 un- This augurs well for the future. them with déjà vu sentiment, follow-
der 14 parameters of primary-second- To rate and rank India’s best ing the advice of Raymond Rava-
ary education excellence. Parameter schools countrywide, this year our glia, Director of Launchpad LLC, a
scores are totaled to rank schools survey partner, the Bangalore-based US-based education research com-
inter se in three main and 14 sub- AZ Research Partners Pvt. Ltd, pany that rated and ranked America’s
categories to eliminate apples with expanded the number of sample re- Best Universities for undergrad edu-
oranges type comparisons and level spondents to 9,500 from 8,700 last cation earlier this year together with
the playing field for assessed schools. year. These sample respondents EW (see https://educationworld.in/
Self-evidently, day schools cannot be rated 4,500 schools of all genres in rankings-americas-best-universi-
compared with boarding schools. Or 518 metros, Tier-I, II and III cities ties-2025/), we have promoted sev-
well-endowed international schools countrywide. This width and depth eral schools with consistently high
with high-end infrastructure can’t be evolving over the past 18 years has rank and excellent scores under sev-
compared with private budget or free- transformed the annual EWISR from eral critical parameters into a new
of-charge government schools. a tentative experimental schools rank- Ivy League Schools category for Day,
Since then over the past almost ings survey into the world’s largest Day-cum-Boarding, Residential and

38 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2025