Page 112 - Education World Dec 2021

Cover Story EW BUDGET PRIVATE SCHOOLS RANKINGS 2021 22

p u ra m co-ranked #10 with the O l -
s
a
iv i En l ig h te n e d En g l i h S c h ool
( sic) S il ig u ri, W e s t B e n g a l com-
plete the Top 10 table.
“It’s great news that we have re-
tained our #1 ranking in the post-pan-
demic year. Especially because this
honour coincides with our having be-
come the first BPS countrywide to be
certified a Microsoft Showcase School.
Under the guidance of the Bengaluru-
based Tech Avant Garde Pvt. Ltd, our
teachers underwent rigorous train-
ing with all of them now certified
Microsoft Innovator Educators. As a
result, we have evolved a robust digi-
tal technologies-driven hybrid model
for future teaching-learning in St.
Mary’s and all our affiliated schools,”
k
says B h a ra t M a l i , a former print- New Blossoms, Bengaluru’s Shashi Kumar: indefatigable activism
ing technologist and marketing pro-
fessional who together with his wife citizens, and especially minorities, to provide English-medium education
Neelam, an English literature post- establish and administer education in- to low-income households in the
grad of Bombay University with six stitutions of their choice and to derive town (pop.8.75 lakh), has been ac-
years teaching experience at St. John reasonable profit from the “vocation knowledged and promoted from #31
Baptist School, Mumbai, promoted St. of education,” private school, espe- in 2020-21 to the Top 10 (#6) table
Mary’s High in 1989. cially BPS promoters and leaders, are this year.
dds co-promoter N e e l a m M a - fair game for politicians and education “I am very pleased to learn that our
Al ik : “A positive outcome of the officials to harass, blackmail and rip school promoted by my mother 40
highly disruptive Covid pandemic off. According to convoluted official years ago in Guntur has been given
lockdown is that our teachers have and leftist logic, a useless government recognition and ranked #6 among all
become proficient in online teaching- school education provided in the lo- BPS in India. It is a fitting tribute to
learning pedagogies and have trans- cal lingo is preferable to employment her public service. It is also a fitting
formed into valuable institutional enabling ‘foreign’ English-medium reward for our teachers who worked
assets. They not only developed an en- learning. This perhaps explains why very hard to transform KSG into the
abling peer learning culture, but have the EducationWorld India BPS Rank- first BPS in Guntur district to begin
also involved parents’ community to ings introduced in 2015, to accord BPS online classes during the pandemic
improve students’ learning outcomes. their place in the sun, have aroused lockdown. Despite not being awarded
As a result, all our stakeholders have huge enthusiasm countrywide. MSME (micro, small, medium enter-
become a cooperative, enabling com- Educationist S re e k a n th K o - prise) status, we were fortunate to
munity which augurs well for the fu- g a n ti, an engineering postgrad of the obtain a bank loan to install Internet
ture of St. Mary’s”. University of Florida, USA and direc- connectivity and purchase digital de-

Unfortunately, although they dis- tor of the K e n n e dy S c h ool , G u n tu r vices to wire up our classrooms. This
charge a vital role of providing af- ( K S G ) , is delighted that this school enabled us to maintain the learning
fordably priced English-medium promoted by his mother in 1981 to continuity of our children. Now with
education to an estimated 60 million all students back in school since Sep-
children of aspirational lower middle Although they discharge a tember, our remedial classes are fast
and working class households, there’s recovering their learning loss. The
little appreciation for BPS. They are vital role of providing good high Top 10 ranking awarded to us
vilified from public platforms and in quality, affordably priced by your sample respondents is cer-
the media as exploitative institutions tain to motivate our teachers, parents
practising “commercialisation of edu- English-medium education, and students,” says Koganti, who has
cation”, a cardinal sin in the socialist there’s little appreciation also promoted two non-BPS schools
lexicon. Despite the Supreme Court under the name and style of NextGen
repeatedly upholding the right of all for BPS in Indian society International in Andhra Pradesh. Cur-

112 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2021