[In this multi-part series, The Quint tries to explore the explosion of the privately-run Ryan ‘International’ schools over the past few decades, and what it means for quality of education, safety of children, fair play by the administration and other factors. You can also read Part 2 and Part 3 of the series.]
The story of the Ryan International Group of Institutions’ unbridled success in India is one for the books and begs the question: What is the hidden cost of that success?
With humble origins, the group saw exponential growth on the backs of lakhs of supportive parents and turnovers worth hundreds of crores. It’s the largest and most successful private school enterprise in the country, run by the Pintos.
In a little over 40 years, the Ryan International Group of Institutions (RIGI) has established over 180+ K-12 English-medium schools in India, with five in the Middle East. These include the prestigious Ryan schools and the St Xavier’s chain of schools as well. It employs 18,000 faculty members, who educate 2,70,000 students. A total of 30,000 students graduate from Ryan schools annually, and the group opens four to five new schools a year.
The young son, Ryan Pinto, is the heir apparent and CEO who tasted success in his 20s, though the parents – Augustine F Pinto and Madam Grace Pinto – still tightly hold the reins of the throne and the attention of the media. The two sisters, Snehal and Sonal, do their bit to aid “top management” in their own fields. There’s ambition. International recognition and expansion. Awards. Even Guinness Book of World Records!
But there’s also tax fraud. Under-the-table politics. Crumbling infrastructure. Underpaid and abusive teachers. ‘International’ schools in semi-urban areas with putrid bathrooms. An almost forced reverence for the Pintos, the founders. Broke and angry parents tired of coughing up money for compulsory miscellaneous charges.
And dead children: A class II student’s throat was slit in a bathroom; another was found floating in a tank; and yet another was run over by a car while disembarking from her school bus at the end of the day.
The Money, The Land, The Influence
In just over 40 years, the Ryan chain of schools has, well, exploded. With 186 schools, the group doesn’t hold a candle to the state-run 1000+ strong Kendriya Vidyalayas – but the difference is the Ryan group is promoted by several private trusts registered and run tightly by Dr Augustine (Chairman) and his wife, Grace Pinto (Managing Director). The estimated value of the assets owned by the group was pegged at over Rs 5,000 crore in 2015.
So, how does one family command the resources, the ease of access to acres and acres of land in urban and semi-urban areas and stay immune from the builder-neta-babu licence-permit-quota raj?
It doesn’t.
Ryan International Group of Institutions (RIGI) sources told Education World that the top management maintains “well-balanced relations” with all political parties and has access to most political leaders. This is mutually-beneficial, as high-quality and modestly priced English-medium schools in constituencies help politicians win public support and approval.
RIGI is flooded with invitations from state and local governments and politicians across the country who are aware that we are flexible [...] Unlike the conventional convent schools, which perpetuate standardised learning architecture, ethos and majorly stick to Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations affiliation, the Pintos challenged that notion and customised their schools to suit local needs. They went for different and convenient board affiliations, even variable fees from school to school.RIGI Spokesperson to Education World
This flexibility reflects not only in the various boards they have (up to six different Indian and International boards), but also very real aspects such as the fee varying anywhere between Rs 50,000 per annum in branches like Vasant Kunj to Rs 20,000-30,000 in smaller branches like Faridabad. This in turn also reflects in the highly varying quality of schools across the chain. Some campuses have lush football fields, amphitheatres, state-of-the-art computer labs, well-manned security staff. But some smaller branches like Bhondsi in Gurgaon, where a Class II student was murdered, has non-functional CCTV, broken boundary walls, a liquor shop just metres away, and washrooms shared by supporting staff and students.
During snack/lunch breaks, [there is] literally no water. Toilets stink. Explanation by supervisor [when asked] was: “How can school provide water for so many children? Ayyammas are busy.”Cynthia Lobo, Former teacher at Ryan International School, Kundanahalli, Bangalore
Manipulating the Stock Market
An interim order released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 2015 accuses RIGI founders Augustine and Grace Pinto of rallying the stock market to launder money. Documents suggest that the Pintos used a Mumbai-based finance company, Kamakshi Limited, to turn a Rs 50 lakh investment into an over Rs 30 crore profit.
How they did it:
Preferential shares or shares that are given to certain “preferential” people and cannot be traded on the stock market were allotted by the company priced at Rs 12. Grace and Augustine Pinto bought 2.5 lakh shares each, thereby investing Rs 60 lakhs.
According to the document, between January 2014 to December 2014, the share price of this company rose artificially by operators manipulating the stocks by 48 times – a stunning 4,694 percent – starting from Rs 10.20 to over Rs 656 on 27 January 2015. The combined notional profit the husband and wife duo added up to Rs 32 crore, from an investment of Rs 50 lakh.
Not only did they launder money by manipulating the stock market, they even evaded paying taxes. Since shareholders do not have to pay a capital gain tax if they hold the share for more than 12 months, Grace and Augustine, along with 137 other “preferential allottees” sold their shares only in 2015, after the price was artificially pumped up for over a year.
What’s fishy about the whole thing is that the Pintos and the other 135 allottees invested in Kamakshi Limited when it clearly had very poor fundamentals.
From the Annual Reports of the company, it was observed that it had earned profits of Rs 97, 198 only in 2011-12 and worse, only Rs 33, 632 in 2012-13. Yet, the company attracted investment of almost Rs 42 crore between November 2013 and June 2014, something that is considered irrational investment behaviour. This and the fact that all the shares allotted were preferential and hence, couldn’t actually be traded on the stock market, led Whole Time Member of SEBI, Rajeev Agarwal, to conclude in the report:
I am of the considered view that the schemes, plan, device and artifice employed in this case, apart from being a possible case of tax evasion, which could be seen by the concerned law enforcement agencies separately, is prima facie also a fraud on the securities market in as much as it involves manipulative transactions in securities and misuse of the securities market.
Following this, the company was banned from trading its shares on the stock market. The SEBI ordered a probe into the operators who manipulated the market and referred the case to the Income Tax Department too.
The company continues to remain active, however, now under the name of Gromotrade and Consultants Limited. The Pintos too escaped punishment and were not banned from accessing the capital market, and it’s anybody’s guess which business venture of theirs benefitted from the profits.
The Politics of Success
Grace Pinto has taken on the mantle of dealing with the politicians on behalf of the Ryan Group. She maintains good relations with all parties, dignitaries of which are often invited as VIPs in Ryan school functions across India. The school has made its presence in high-profile constituencies like Rae Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, represented by Sonia Gandhi, and Bolpur, Somnath Chatterjee’s constituency (Communist Party-Marxist).
Earlier, she was close to the Congress, with reports of both Rahul and Sonia Gandhi meeting Madam Pinto on many occasions. There are whispers that it was with the aim of getting a Padma Shri award in the field of education to her name, and a seat in the National Commission for Minorities for her husband.
However, her friendship with the Congress ended when none of her desires were fulfilled while the UPA was in power. When the government changed in 2014, so did Madam Pinto’s allegiances and before anyone knew it, she formally joined BJP’s Mahila Morcha in 2015 as a National Secretary from Mumbai.
The same year, news broke that RIGI allegedly ran a forced membership drive for the BJP in all its institutions. Teachers, supporting staff and students were allegedly forced to give a missed call on a number which would register that number as a new member of the party. Grace Pinto and the management clarified that the membership was voluntary. However, several teachers and parents confirmed that they were given minimum membership targets. A former student from the 2013 batch of Ryan International School, Rohini, even confirmed on condition of anonymity that teachers’ salaries were threatened to be held if targets for the drive weren’t met.
Grace Pinto often meets with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, as she did with former Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dixit. She is a known name in the education ministries of various states where the school has created roots and is often present at high state ceremonial functions.
Her position in BJP’s Mahila Morcha gave Madam Pinto the platform to form networks with the senior members from the BJP, especially in Delhi and Mumbai. As a result, she was also made an ‘Independent Director’ in the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) on 2 February 2017, a central government undertaking by Union Minister for Textiles, Smriti Irani.
This begs many questions: Why was she given the post of Secretary in BJP’s Mahila Morcha shortly after she was named for tax fraud and money laundering by SEBI? Or a plum post in the Cotton Corporation of India?
Ryan Group’s Access to Land
Ryan International Schools are administered by various Societies/Trusts set up anew for each school. Though the goal of the group is to provide “world-class English education” with holistic extra-curricular activities, being a minority institution, the group aims to conserve Christian tradition and culture as well. Augustine Pinto and all members of the core committee of each Trust/Society belong to the Christian community.
This gives RIGI minority status (open to all students, with special focus on Christians) enjoying constitutional rights under Article 30. Also making them eligible for the Ministry of Human Resource Development scheme for Infrastructure Development in Minority Institutes (IDMI). Under this, Trusts get grants of Rs 50 lakh or 75% of infrastructure costs to build each school (whichever is less), from the union government.
Apart from this, the Ryan group’s modus operandi has always been penetration into Tier 2 cities and new settlement suburban areas of big cities, with the help of their ‘flexible fee, flexible infrastructure’ motto. For this, they look towards real estate developers and even corporates looking to save on tax through the Corporate Social Responsibility route. For instance, DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd partnered with the Ryan group to inaugurate a K-10 school in Shahjahanpur, UP near their sugar factories.
Real Estate developers like Ahuja Constructions and Parsavnath, to name a few, also partner with the group by giving them thousands of square feet of land at discounted rates within big residential project premises that come up at alarming rates in city suburbs like Ambarnath in Mumbai, Chakan in Pune and Greater Noida in NCR, to name a few among scores of such projects.
What the real estate developers get is Ryan’s brand (‘Luxury residential townships with all facilities including world-renowned Ryan school within project premises’) which attracts middle-class parents with families to their real estate. The Ryan group, on the other hand, gets access to land more easily, at a cheaper cost and most importantly, with a vast scope of geographical expansion, as is evident from their growth.
Controversies
To help... or not to help?
Controversies have always followed the Ryan group, perhaps as the consequence of the astronomical speed with which they intend to create long-lasting, self-sufficient, ‘high-quality’ educational institutes, all while making crores in their turnover of the company. Yet, an investigation by Tehelka revealed at least three out of the five ‘International’ schools in Delhi have no quota to enrol students from weaker sections of society, as made mandatory for all private CBSE schools under the Right to Education Act, 2010.
On the other hand, Ryan schools are active donors to several NGOs across India like HelpAge India and CRY, since embedding a deep social commitment in students is one of the core goals of the teaching philosophy of the Pintos. However, this aspect of the schools doesn’t come without its own quota of skepticism. Donations include not only asking children (parents) to raise money for fundraising drives worth lakhs, but also the school donating part of its profits as educational institutes which allows them to avail of tax exemption under Section 80G.
For instance, the Annual Report of HelpAge India for 2012-13 lists as many as 21 Ryan International Schools across India as ‘Educational Institute Donors’, along with recognising the contribution of Madam Grace Pinto for her long-lasting support to the elderly.
A Curious Affiliation Issue:
All schools of the Ryan Group are either affiliated under the St Xaviers Education Trust or a new Trust opened in the name of the school – except for Ryan International School, Chandigarh. While the school website says it’s funded by and registered under the former in 2003, the CBSE website, where one can check affiliation records, reveals that the school is actually registered under the Bharatiya Vidyabhavan Kendra Trust in 2000, a trust that has a vast network of public schools across the country.
Rules Are Meant to be Broken?
In 2015, the Delhi Education Department told the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to cancel the lease of four Trusts are running Ryan Schools in Rohini. Originally, the land was allotted to these trusts to run their own schools in Rohini Sectors 11 and 16, but they leased it out to St Lawrence Education Society, which in turn runs Ryan schools.
This fundamentally violates the conditions of DDA land allotment which specify the land can not be transferred or subleased to any other organisation by the society without prior permission of the DDA obtained in writing. This, besides having 4 acres of land directly allotted to them by DDA in Sector 25 where a Ryan International School already exists.
The Quint’s calls and a detailed questionnaire to the corporate office of the Ryan Group to contact Madam Grace Pinto on these issues went unanswered over several days.
Also Read:
Exclusive: Ryan Schools and Their Abusive, Underpaid Teachers, Part 2
Exclusive: Steep Fee Hikes & Stinking Toilets in Ryan Schools, Part 3
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