The survey rates and ranks the country’s Top 4,500 schools in 3 main and 29 sub-categories — Day: Co-ed, Boys and Girls, Day-cum-boarding, Vintage Coed Day, Vintage Boys, Vintage Girls, Vintage Day-cum-Boarding; Ivy League Day and Ivy League Day-cum-Boarding; Boarding: Co-ed, Girls and Boys, Vintage Co-ed, Vintage Girls and Vintage Boys; Ivy League Boarding schools International: Day, Day-cum-boarding and fully Residential; Vintage International Residential; Ivy League Day and Ivy League Day-cum-Boarding. It also rates and ranks India’s best Government Day and Boarding schools, Special Needs, Budget Private and Philanthropy Schools.
Last year (2025), responding to feedback from stakeholders and expert advice from international education researchers, EducationWorld introduced a new ‘Ivy League’ category to celebrate the “best of the best” schools that have consistently dominated EW rankings across critical parameters of excellence such as teacher competence, academic reputation, co-curricular, sports education, etc., over the years. While all are awarded a common #1 rank, these Ivy League schools are awarded stars (1–5) to differentiate them inter se.
Top Ivy League Schools, India #1 (5 Star) 2026-27
Among the select schools elevated to the Ivy League category with India #1 (5 star) rank this year are:
Ivy League Day Schools EWISR 2026-27 are:
- Inventure Academy, Bengaluru – recognized for its Fit-for-Life curriculum and balanced focus on academics, co-curriculars and student well-being.
- Vasant Valley School, Delhi – acclaimed for teacher welfare and academic reputation.
Ivy League Day-cum-Boarding School:
- Daly College, Indore
- Greenwood High, Bengaluru
Ivy League Boarding Schools:
Ivy League International Day Schools:
- Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai
- Oberoi International School, Mumbai
Ivy League International Day-cum-Boarding School:
- Jayshree Periwal International School, Jaipur
- Harrow International School, Bengaluru
“The objective of the annual EWISR is to encourage the managements of India’s best primary-secondaries to strive for continuous upgradation to provide learning outcomes on a par with the world’s best. The USP (unique sales proposition) of EWISR is that it not only ranks India’s best schools in three major and 29 sub-categories, it also ranks them in their states and towns and cities under 15 parameters of education excellence (teacher competence, teacher welfare and development, leadership, sports education, infrastructure etc — attention to detail is unmatched globally). The second objective is that parents should have detailed information prior to selecting the most suitable school for their children. A third objective is that India’s best should serve as role models for over 1 million schools not included in the EWISR league tables” said Dilip Thakore, Founder-Editor, EducationWorld
In EWISR 2026-27, India’s #1 Day Schools are:
- Springdales School, Dhaula Kuan, Delhi – Day Co-ed School
- The Sanskaar Valley School, Bhopal – Day-cum-Boarding
- Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh -Girls Day School
- St. John’s High School, Chandigarh -Boys Day School
India’s top-ranked Boarding Schools 2026-27 are:
- Sarala Birla Academy, Bengaluru # 1+ along with Welham Boys School, Dehradun at #1 (Boys boarding)
- Ecole Globale International Girls School, Dehradun(Girls boarding)
- The Assam Valley School, Balipara (Co-ed boarding)
India’s #1 Vintage Legacy Schools in EWISR 2026-27 are:
- St. Michael’s High School, Patna – Vintage Legacy Co-ed School
- St. Mary’s School, Pune – Vintage Legacy Girls Day School
- St. Mary’s School, Mazgaon, Mumbai – Vintage Legacy Boys Day School
- La Martiniere Boys College, Lucknow – Vintage Legacy Day-cum-Boarding School
- The Lawrence School, Lovedale, Ooty – Vintage Legacy Co-ed boarding
- All Saints’ College, Nainital – Vintage Legacy Girls Boarding
- Bishop Cotton School, Shimla –Vintage Legacy Boys Boarding
- Woodstock School, Mussoorie –Vintage Legacy International Residential
India’s #1 International Schools in EWISR 2026-27 are:
- Aditya Birla World Academy, Mumbai (Day)
- Greenwood High International, Bengaluru (Day-cum-Boarding)
- Mussoorie International School (Fully Residential)
This year India’s #1 Government Day Schools are:
- Army Public School, Delhi Cantt– Central Government Day school,
- Rashtriya Military School, Bengaluru-Government Boarding School
- Government Model Sr Sec School, Sector 16 D, Chandigarh -State Government Day School
India’s #1 Schools in other categories are:
- The Aditya Birla Integrated School, Mumbai – Special Needs School
- Muni International School, Delhi– Budget Private School.
- Pardada Pardadi School, Bulandshahr – Most Admired Philanthropic School
Ms. Shubra Mishra, Founder-Director, AZ Research Partners, added “This year we expanded our survey to 18,000 respondents across 34 cities in 22 states.For this exercise, we used a fully structured questionnaire and responses have been entered using an online link. To conduct interviews with sample respondents, we gave them the option of face-to-face, telephonic and online link, and to control unfair push by any school or its support system only one response has been accepted per selected respondent. Any response suspected of trying to influence results in favour of any school has been rejected. Learning continuously from experience, I believe we have developed a water-proof evaluation system for assessing schools in all major categories and sub-categories.”
The 14 parameters of education excellence on which the schools were evaluated are:
- Academic Reputation
- Competence of Faculty
- Individual Attention to Students
- Leadership/Management Quality
- Curriculum and pedagogy
- Co-curricular Education
- Sports Education
- Community Service
- Parental Involvement
- Teacher Welfare and Development
- Value for Money
- Mental and Emotional Well-being Services
- Infrastructure Provision
- Special Needs Education
- All legacy schools are also assessed under a 15th — Quality of alumni — parameter
EducationWorld (estb. 1999) is India’s #1 education newsmagazine with a readership of over 1 million comprising teachers, parents, and senior students. Its mission statement is to “build the pressure of public opinion to make education the #1 item on the national agenda”.
For more information, please visit www.educationworld.in
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