Page 46 - EW December 2020

Cover Story EW CO-ED BOARDING SCHOOLS RANKINGS 2020-21

INDIA’S TOP-RANKED CO-ED BOARDING SCHOOLS

nce upon a time gen-
der segregated boarding
schools — especially boys
Oboarding schools such as
St. Paul’s, Darjeeling, Bishop Cotton,
Shimla, The Doon School, Dehradun,
fashioned in the style of Eton College,
whose sports education inspired Ar-
thur Wellesley, aka the Duke of Wel-
lington, to win the Battle of Waterloo
(1815) — generated shock and awe as
the high-end glamour schools of In-
dia. No more. In recent years, espe-
cially since the dawn of the new mil-
lennium, gender segregated schools
have fallen out of fashion and have the
flavour of schools for progeny of so-
cially backward households that don’t
practice gender equality at home and
believe in arranged marriages. Dr. Anantha Jyothi: RVS mystique explanation
Suddenly co-ed schools — particu-
larly co-ed boarding schools — are Suddenly gender segregated schools have fallen out of
cooler and more stylish, not least be- fashion. Co-ed boarding schools have become cooler and
cause they implicitly teach boys good
drawing room manners and gender more stylish, not least because they implicitly teach boys
egalitarianism. Simultaneously, they good drawing room manners and gender egalitarianism
inculcate the spirit of gender parity
and greater self-confidence in girl chil-
dren from young age. Certainly your far ahead of his time, has routinely they are encouraged to apply in their
editor believes that a decade spent in been ranked India’s #1 co-ed board- chosen vocations and professions for
an all-boys school set his social ad- ing school. Built on a 350-acre campus the benefit of society. The RVS legacy
vancement and development of pleas- that was neglected scrubland almost continues when our students leave
ing social skills by an equal number of a century ago, this 94-year-old school school and go into higher education
years. Self-evidently, being a sports which has been transformed into a and society,” says Dr. Jyothi.
and games hero of girls is far more pollution-free green oasis entirely Jyothi believes the good reputation
fulfilling than impressing yoboes. through learning-by-doing pedago- that RVS has established is also at-
Be that as it may, there is a certain gies, has captured the imagination of tributable to the community outreach
predictability about the co-ed board- the country’s sentient middle class. programmes the school has ideated
ing schools league table of the annual According to Dr. Anantha Jyo- and implemented over the past nine
EducationWorld India School Rank- thi, an English and linguistics alumna decades. “Not much is written about
ings (EWISR) since they were intro- of IIT-Madras with several years of RVS’ outreach projects such as nature
duced to the public in 2007. experience teaching English to the and water conservation, rural educa-
Ab initio the Chittoor (Andhra English in the UK who signed up as tion and health programmes. More
Pradesh)-based Rishi Valley School a teacher at RVS in 1996 and was ap- than five decades of water harvesting
(RVS, estb.1926) promoted by philos- pointed principal in 2018, the secret of has resulted in the construction of
opher-seer Jiddu Krishnamurti RVS’ success is its culture of experien- seven percolation tanks at the edge of
(1895-1986), also an extraordinary tial education and the freedom and en- the campus and on hillsides. A once
indigenous educationist whose teach- ablement given to students to pursue barren hillside adjacent to the school
ing-learning precepts and practices their co-curricular interests. “What is now part scrubland and part forest.
centre around experiential learning the school gives to students is expe- For the local village community, the
and environment sustainability were riential, hands-on education which regenerated hillside means fodder for

46 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2020