Kangaroo Kids, Bandra has retained its top ranking as the commercial capital’s No.1 preschool in the second EducationWorld-C fore Survey of Mumbai’s Most Admired Preschools 2011
As in the other metros, Mumbai’s most admired preschools league table 2011 has experienced minor changes in the Top 5. While Kangaroo Kids, Bandra has retained its premier rank, the previously unranked Headstart, Prarthana Samaj has replaced its namesake (Headstart, Bandra which is now Silva Brook preschool) in the second slot, clearly reflecting some confusion in the sample respondents base. Moreover West Wind, Breach Candy, ranked No.4 last year, has moved up the ladder to third rank exchanging position with Casa Bambino, Bhulabhai Desai Road.
The more notable feature of the 2011 league table of Mumbai’s most admired preschools is that Podar Jumbo Kids, Santacruz (W) ranked No.12 last year has gate-crashed into the Top 5. Further down the list of most admired preschools in the nation’s commercial capital, Jack and Jill, Andheri (East) and Children’s Nook, Gamdevi (unranked last year), have debuted at No. 12 and 13 respectively.
“The relative stability of the Mumbai league table is due to this metro’s long tradition of preschool education. Indeed it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that Mumbai was the first city to introduce formal preschool education in India. Early childhood education (ECE) institutions such as West Wind, Casa Bambino and Sophia Nursery have been running for over half a century, and it’s well known that they are feeder schools of the city’s elite Cathedral and John Connon and Bombay Scottish schools,” says a Mumbai-based education consultant, who prefers to remain unidentified.
However, within the offices of the Mumbai-based Kangaroo Kids Edu-cation Ltd, a company promoted by Africa-born, Australia-educated educa-tion entrepreneur Lina Ashar, and which today comprises over 118 preschools and 14 K-12 schools in 21 cities across India, there is quiet satisfaction that the company’s very first initiative — Kangaroo Kids, Bandra, promoted in 1993 — has retained its premier position as Mumbai’s most admired preschool. With an aggregate enrolment of 310 children in seven classrooms spread over 3,000 sq. ft, this preschool levies tuition fees ranging between Rs.57,800-60,900, despite which it received 250 admis-sion applications for the 50 seats offered at the start of the current academic year.
“We are delighted but not surprised that Kangaroo Kids, Bandra has again been ranked the No.1 preschool in Mumbai by parents and educators. Over the past almost two decades, we have continuously developed our systems and processes to make the nurturing and care of our pupils entirely child-centric. To this end we have invested a lot of time, money and effort in teacher training and development, setting up our own training academy which offers a one-year diploma in ECE, and this is supplemented with conti-nuous skills development through in-service training programmes. Therefore I’m not surprised that we have been rated the best preschool on the parameter of competence of teachers and innovative teaching. It’s also fitting that our founder-chairperson Lina Ashar’s contribution to preschool education has been recognised by our No.1 rating on the parameter of leadership, as have been the excellent facilities we provide for special needs children,” says Divya Punjabi, custodian of Kangaroo Kids, Bandra.
The elation in the child-friendly environment of Podar Jumbo Kids, Santacruz (W), where 1,800 infants aged three-five years learn joyously in the “Podar Jumbo Kids way” was obvious when your correspondent visited to break the news that it has vaulted from No. 12 last year to the Top 5 in the EW-C fore league table of Mumbai’s most admired preschools 2011. “Acknowledgment by parents and educators of the pioneering work we are doing in ECE is most encouraging. In Podar Jumbo Kids, we don’t believe children need ‘preschools’! They need nurturing environments to enhance their rounded growth and give them a lifelong foundation of healthy development. Our entire institutional effort is built around this philosophy. We believe we have evolved a unique system of ‘kiducation’, under which we address every child’s needs according to her growth and development stage. Our teachers are taught to reason and question any new or old idea before applying it in the classroom — to think from the perspective of the child’s age and needs. Moreover our focus is on teaching basic life skills rather than formal learning. I am pleased about the growing apprec-iation of our style of ECE which is reflected in the high scores we have received on the parameters of leadership, individual attention to students, and infrastructure provision,” says Swati Popat Vats, principal of Podar Jumbo Kids (tuition fees Rs.2,000 per month) and president of the Podar Education Network (estb.1927) which comprises 102 institutions in preschool, primary, secondary and higher education.
Mumbai's best preschools league table userfiles/Mumbai-table.pdf
Parameters of Excellence: Mumbai's Top Preschools userfiles/Mumbai-Parameters of Excellence.pdf