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Cover Story EW INDIA SCHOOL RANKINGS 2021 22

independent, objective image of their data including class XII school-leaving
public profile, enabling them to con- average exam scores of schools willing
duct SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, to provide them. Moreover this year,
opportunities and threats) analyses the scores awarded under the crucial
and improve under parameters in parameter of ‘teacher competence’
which they receive low scores. More- include teachers’ scores in a special
over, high-ranked schools attract the online test administered by Centre for
best teachers and brightest students. Teacher Accreditation (CENTA), the
Nevertheless, despite the an- well-known teacher development and
nual EWISR having evolved into the certification company. However, less
world’s largest primary-secondary than 15 percent of the 3,000 schools
schools ranking initiative which has included in EWISR 2021-22 wrote the
beamed a bright searchlight on the CENTA test. In the prevailing circum-
vital necessity of delivering globally stances, the EWISR survey methodol-
competitive education, influential ogy is the most feasible option. These
academics tend to be skeptical, if not annual surveys are pragmatic and
indifferent. Palety: spirited defence their great merit is that we have ide-
“ all education institution to collect and process data from In- listic school education, and generated
ated over a dozen benchmarks for ho-
THE GREAT INFIRMITY OF
extensive nationwide awareness of the
ranking surveys conducted
anced education,” says Palety.
by for-profit companies — dia’s 1.5 million schools, and to verify vital importance of well-rounded, bal-
it. In the circumstances, the EWISR
including the London-based QS and rankings methodology based on the Palety’s defence of the annual EW-
Times H igher Educ ation — is that perceptions of knowledgeable sample ISR which during the past 14 years
they give huge weightage to public respondents — educationists, prin- since it was instituted has aroused
perception. They are not data and cipals, teachers, fees-paying parents huge response from within the K-12
facts-based. For this reason, I believe and well-networked senior students education stakeholders community
that the NIRF (National Institutional — is the most practical and efficient — the consequential EWISR Awards
Ranking Framework) of the Union alternative. function staged every year at the Lee-
education ministry and NITI Aayog P re m chan d P al e t y, an alum of la, Gurugram, Delhi NCR attracts over
which is entirely based on hard data the highly-ranked Punjab Engineering 1,000 of the country’s most reputed
submitted by ranked higher education College and Fore School of Manage- K-12 educators — is seconded by R o -
institutions, is superior to the much- ment, Delhi and promoter-director of hi t M o hi n dra, director of Mumbai-
celebrated QS and TH E rankings. C fore, offers a spirited defence of the based Raj Mohindra Consultants, one
Although the intent of the EWISR is annual EWISR survey. “Although EW- of the country’s most respected educa-
noble inasmuch as it helps parents ISR is primarily a perceptions-based tion consultancy firms.
choose the most suitable schools for survey, we have been publishing hard “The annual EWISR surveys have
their children, its drawback is that it
is heavily based on the perceptions of CENTA Subject Competency Test
sample respondents who are unlikely
to be sufficiently well-informed about o add an element of objectivity to perceptual scores awarded by sample re-
schools other than their own,” says Tspondents under the double weightage parameter of teacher competence,
Dr. R . N at araj an , former director all EWISR schools were invited to nominate six teachers to take an online 30
of IIT-Madras and chairman of the All minutes (20 questions) English, maths and science test administered by the
India Council for Technical Education Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA, estb.2014).
(AICTE). “Nominated teachers were tested on subject competence, a subset of our
This assessment of the unprec- regular CENTA Teaching Quotient test. Teachers of schools that did well in
edented EWISR initiative is not un- this subset test demonstrated acceptable levels of subject confidence,” says
usual within academia dominated by R am ya V e n k at aram an , a former McKinsey India consultant and promot-
intellectuals for whom less-than-per- er-CEO of CENTA, which currently works with 5 lakh teachers countrywide.
fect solutions are worthless. Steeped This being a new addition, only 15 percent of EWISR schools nominated
in slow-moving government culture teachers to take this test. School principals are advised to nominate teachers to
academics tend to be time and ex- take this CENTA test next year as it improves score awarded under the teacher
penditure agnostic. The plain truth is competence parameter and enables institutional managements to determine
that it is administratively impossible quantum of investment required in professional development.

44 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2021