Ranking top schools of India is one of the most challenging tasks, given the large size of the ecosystem. To start with, we sent the ranking questionnaire format to more than 10, 000 schools across the country. Schools displayed amazing enthusiasm in the activity and 5, 476 schools sent us the filled-in questionnaire. We also collected available information from the school websites in case of missing information in the submitted questionnaire. We allotted cumulative ranks to the schools and formed a statewise ranking, seggregated in six zones of India – North, Central, South, West, East and North-East.
Schools have been evaluated based on the following indicators
School Reputation: Details pertaining to the year of inception, national level awards won by the school in various summits, and the number of students who passed out of the school and are studying in different top level institutes and abroad were considered to evaluate this category.
Teachers’ Competency: Under this indicator, we have considered the number of permanent teachers, their qualification, experience, and training programs organised by the school for grading.
Academic Excellence: Under this indicator, we evaluated schools based on teacher-student ratio, average class size, academic achievement awards to the students, and co-curricular hours per week/ student.
Infrastructure: This being one of the key parameters in ensuring healthy learning environment. The schools were evaluated on the basis of the campus area, total built-up area, labs, auditorium and the use of ICT in teaching and learning.
Students’ Development: In today’s competitive and ever changing world, an overall development of a student can be achieved only if the school acknowledge the importance of skill training programs like life skills, leadership skills, sports, etc along with academics. So, we asked schools to submit details on the number of parent teacher meetings per year, life skills training for students, vocational and other skills, personal counselling for students, career counselling, excursion and outdoor activities, social responsibility, foreign languages taught, facilities for children with special needs, societies and clubs in the school, student- teacher exchange programmes and alumni database.
Sports and Extra Curricular activities: Sports are important for the overall development of children. So, we evaluated schools based on details like extra-curricular hours per week/student, sports infrastructure and the awards and accolades in sports won by the school.
Academic Performance: Academic performance for a child is of paramount importance while pursuing higher education, to be able to secure a bright and fulfilling future. The percentage of students acquiring marks above 90 percent between 75-90 percent and less than 75 percent was taken into consideration while evaluating the academic performance of schools.
