Indian schools among finalists for world’s best school prizes

FOUR Indian schools were on Wednesday (18) named among the top 10 finalists across different categories for the annual world's best school prizes, organised in the UK to celebrate schools' enormous contribution to society's progress.

Schools from Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh were unveiled as contenders for membership of the Best School to Work programme to help schools attract and retain the best teachers. The worldwide winners across categories will be announced in October.

The five world's best school prizes – for community collaboration, environmental action, innovation, overcoming adversity, and supporting healthy lives – were founded by UK-headquartered T4 Education in the wake of Covid to give a platform to schools that are changing lives in their classrooms and beyond.

"In a world being turned upside down by AI, as technology reshapes the way we learn and renders jobs that have existed for centuries obsolete, amid growing challenges of climate change, conflict, poverty and populism, the world our young people are entering has never felt more precarious. And a good education, with humans at its heart, has never been more important," said Vikas Pota, founder of T4 Education and the world's best school prizes.

T4 Education calls itself a global platform bringing together a community of over 200,000 teachers from more than 100 countries to transform education.

Government Girls Senior Secondary School, NIT 5, a state secondary school in Faridabad, Haryana, has been selected for transforming the lives of at-risk girls by interlinking nutritional programmes, physical wellbeing, and mental health support with education to break down societal barriers and ensure no girl is left behind. It is on the list of 10 finalists for the world's best school prize for supporting healthy lives.

ZP School Jalindar Nagar, a public primary school in Khed taluka, near Pune, has been recognised for revolutionising public-school education by providing quality student-led learning with its subject friend system, a peer-learning model where students of different ages teach and learn from each other. This Maharashtra-based school is a finalist in community collaboration category.

Ekya School, J P Nagar, is an independent kindergarten, primary, and secondary school in Bengaluru which is empowering students to become innovative thinkers and proactive problem solvers through a design thinking curriculum that integrates human-centred design processes and skills development. It has been named a top 10 finalist for the innovation.

Delhi Public School, an independent kindergarten, primary and secondary school in Varanasi, is creating an environment where students are empowered to explore, grow and lead with compassion through its learner-centric educational model that embeds environmental stewardship and social responsibility into the learning experience. This UP school is in the running for environmental action category.

Congratulating the schools on becoming finalists for the World's Best School Prizes 2025, Pota said, "It is in schools like these that we find the innovations and expertise that give us hope for a better future. Leaders and schools around the world have so much to learn from these inspirational Indian institutions."

The winners will be chosen by an expert Judging Academy, with all 50 finalist schools across the five prizes also taking part in a public vote opened this week to determine the winner of the community choice award.

The worldwide winners across these categories will be announced in October, with all the finalists and winners invited to the World Schools Summit in Abu Dhabi on November 15-16.

The winning schools will share their best practices, unique expertise and experience with policymakers and leading figures in global education, according to a statement.

(PTI)