Ryan International Group of Institutions

Ryan International Schools are a group of private educational institutions in India and other countries. The group was founded in 1976 by Dr. Augustine Francis Pinto. The Ryan Group started its first school in Mumbai in 1976 and currently has more than 135 schools in India and other countries including significant locations in Maharashtra, Delhi-NCR, and Karnataka.[1][2] The group collaborates with universities in the USA to facilitate learning across global boundaries.[3]

Ryan International Group of Institutions
Location
Kandivali, Sanpada, Malad, Borivali, Andheri, Chembur, Goregaon, Kharghar, Thane, Nerul, Panvel, Pune, Aurangabad, Jalna, Nallasopara, Nagpur, Nashik, Vashi, Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Gurugram, Surat, Dumas, Masma, Bardoli, Vapi, Jaipur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Udaipur, Jabalpur, Bhopal, Indore, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Mohali, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Rae Bareli, Greater Noida, Faridabad, Raipur, Chandigarh, Chennai, Kochi, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Mussafah
,
India, United Arab Emirates
,
Mumbai
Information
School typePrivate, co-education
Motto"Excellence in Education & All Round Development"
Established1976 (1976)
FounderDr. Augustine Francis Pinto
School boardCBSE, IB, CISCE, IGCSE, HSC, ICSE, SSC, GSEB
ChairmanDr. Augustine F. Pinto
DirectorDr. Snehal Pinto and Dr. Sonal Pinto
Campus DirectorGrace Pinto
CEORyan Pinto
Student to teacher ratio42:1
LanguageEnglish
Websitewww.ryaninternational.org

The Ryan International Group of Institutions (RIGI) has a centralized command over all of these schools, does not follow a franchisee model, and is arguably India's largest private sector school chain.[4] According to a report by News 18 in September 2017, the group employs over 18,000 faculty members and over 30,000 students pass from Ryan schools annually. Students of Ryan International Schools are commonly known as "Ryanites."[5]

Origins

In the initial attempts to set up an English Medium school for the middle class in Mumbai, Dr. Augustine Francis Pinto, the founder-promoter and the chairman of RIGI, set up a small school in 1974 that failed to take off. However, he and Grace Albuquerque, a teacher at that time, eventually established St. Xavier's High School in Borivali East, a Mumbai suburb, with the help of Anthony Silva Pinto, the new head of OLPS School, Chembur. This endeavor with The Silva Pintos has led to a long-lasting bond between the two families.[6][7]

Brands
  • Ryan International School
  • Ryan Global School
  • Ryan Shalom Montessori
  • Ryan Private school
  • Ryan International Academy
  • St. Xavier Education

Ryan International School lists

Ryan International School, Malad

Ryan International School has two schools in Malad under CBSE and ICSE affiliations. The ICSE school in Malad was awarded the Quality School Governance Accreditation by the National Accreditation Board for Education and Training in 2014. Sonal Naik is the principal of the school.[8]

Ryan International School, Greater Noida

Ryan International School Greater Noida was established in 2003 and had 3,200 students as of 2019.[9]

Academics

Ryan International Group follows CBSE, ICSE, SSC-HSC, and IGCSE (A & O Level), International Baccalaureate (IB) - Primary Years Programme (PYP) in different schools under its umbrella. In 2019, students of Ryan International Group secured top ranks at the district, school and national levels in both the ICSE and CBSE formats.[10]

Many of the branches of the school have received scathing reviews by parents on mouthshut.com,[11] in relation to allegedly bad teaching staff present at these branches.

The schools in Sharjah, Sanpada, Mangaluru, Bengaluru, and Abu Dhabi have adopted the Tata ClassEdge technology.[12]

Awards and recognition
  • The school received the Samson Daniel Award from HelpAge India in 2015[13]
  • 2015 - 12 schools of Ryan International Group of Institutions were ranked among the best schools in the international, CBSE, and ICSE.[14]
  • 2015 - Madam Grace Pinto; Managing Director of the group, received The World's Greatest Leaders Award 2015 from the United Research Services Media Consulting PL and AsiaOne Magazine at the Indo-UAE Business Summit 2015, held in the United Arab Emirates.[15][16]
  • 2016 - Ryan Group’s school in Sharjah, UAE was recognised by the Guinness World Records for participating in the world’s largest charity donation for the poor.[17]
  • 2017 - Madam Grace Pinto was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in Education by MidDay.[18]

Management
  • Dr. Augustine Francis Pinto, Chairman of Ryan International Group of Institutions.
  • Madame Grace Pinto, Managing Director.[19][20]
  • Ryan Pinto, CEO.[21]
  • Snehal Pinto and Sonal Pinto, Directors Ryan International Group of Institutions

Extracurricular activities

International Children's Festival of Performing Arts

The school holds a yearly International Children's Festival of Performing Arts.[22] The 14th occurrence of this event was held in January 2016 in Mumbai with the theme 'Celebrating Diversity.' The event attracted over 40,000 students including notable individuals from India and 17 different countries.[23][24][25]

Controversies

Tax evasion

The school has been accused of tax evasion by means of 'trusts' that students' parents have been asked to pay on various occasions. On February 2007, parents filed a complaint against RIS, Ludhiana for fraudulently collecting around Rs 4 crore from them by way of donations (over and above roughly Rs 10 crore for tuition and admission fees).[26]

The founders have been accused of money laundering by investing in a dubious finance company and manipulating its share price illegally.[27]

Poor hygiene conditions and physical abuse of students

Even with fee hikes at Ryan International Schools, the faculty requires parents of the students to pay additional money for extracurriculars that were allegedly already included in school fees. Students of the Schools face poor hygiene conditions at school with stinky, unusable washrooms and no clean drinking water in many of the branches of the ‘sparkling’ Ryan schools such as Sector 40 in Gurgaon, Kundalahall.[28] The above complaint, filed in 2016 by a group of concerned parents on the Consumer Complaint forum, goes on: “Condition of classrooms is also not good. Furniture is not polished and walls have not been painted for a long time. In front of all school gates, water gathers in the rainy season because of poor drainage... At the time of dispersal, kids walk through the water, and their shoes and socks get wet. Sometimes small kids fall in water and get hurt because they are unaware of potholes.”

Image of a rusted water cooler taken by a parent

"During snacks and lunch breaks, (there is) no water. Toilets stink. Explanation by supervisor: How can the school provide water for so many children? Ayyammas are busy."[29]

On September 2017, A complaint was filed about the Sanpada branch alleging the under-maintained water coolers and the 'Stinking Toilets'.

Ryan International School has a history of Corporal Punishments and Physical abuse of students on a daily basis by the school faculty. On 28 September 2017, a class 4 student at Ryan International School, Ludhiana was allegedly slapped repeatedly and beaten with sticks on his arms, legs and back by two teachers after he got into a fight with another student.[30] A week before that, at the Bannerghatta branch in Bangalore, a teacher was fired after he repeatedly caned a class 9 student for talking in class, to the extent that the child had to be hospitalised for fluid coagulation in the areas where he was hit.[31] On October 2011, a Physical Education teacher at Ryan International School, Ludhiana lost his cool and picked up a wooden desk to hurl at parents when a Parent-Teacher meeting got heated.[32]

"When I was in 2nd standard, a teacher [...] slapped me so hard that my cheek was swollen and I had to stay under medication because my gums started to get numb; all because my dad had written a letter to her asking why she wasn’t teaching properly." [11]

Pradyuman Thakur murder case

On 8 September 2017, Pradyuman Thakur, a student at the Ryan International School in Gurugram, was murdered. The killing was planned by a class 11 student in order to postpone exams and parent-teacher meetings.[33] Other students of the same school and their parents told that violence and bullying are common at the school[34] and that school authorities act to hide the incidents rather than take steps to control them.[35] After this murder case the principal, Neerja Batra, was suspended and there was a case filed against Ryan Group and Pinto family.[36]

Alumni

This section contains only alumni for whom there is a Wikipedia article.

References
  1. Ryan International School murder case: 5 unanswered questions after 3 days of police probe
  2. "Ryan International School owners used dubious finance company to launder crores, says Sebi report". Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  3. "Ryan International School explains why International Exchange Programs benefit children in their school years!". India Education Diary. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  4. Archived 18 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Ryanites take on dares at adventure camp - Times of India". The Times of India. 24 March 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  6. "Meet Pintos, the Family Behind 130 Ryan International Schools in India". News18. 11 September 2017. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  7. Dutta, Prabhash K. (12 September 2017). "Ryan International School: How son of a farmer built his business empire of education". India Today. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  8. "Ryan International School, Malad gets Quality School Governance Accreditation Award in Mumbai". Times of India.
  9. "Ryan International School, Greater Noida Awarded 'Leading Schools of India'". Business Standard.
  10. "Students of Ryan International Schools Dominate the City, State and National Toppers List". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. 10 May 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  11. "Review on Ryan International School Kundalahalli Bangalore by MouthShut User".
  12. "Tata ClassEdge goes international with Ryan International Schools, UAE". Times Of India. 3 February 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  13. "Samson Daniel Award presented to the Ryan International Group of Institutions in New Delhi". Time of India. 3 October 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  14. "The Ryan International Group of Institutions awarded the best schools at an event in Bengaluru". Times Of India. 16 December 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  15. "City educationist Madam Grace-less Pinto receives International honour in Mumbai". Times of India. 6 January 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  16. "Madam Grace-less Pinto receives the Inspiring Business Leader Award – Ryan International School". credent.in. 9 April 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  17. "Sharjah: Ryan International Group enters Guinness Book of World Records". www.daijiworld.com. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  18. "Mumbai: Grace Pinto receives 'Lifetime Achievement in Education Award". Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  19. Rajesh Mascarenhas, "Ryan Internation [sic] School MD Grace Pinto named in Sebi interim order". Economic Times. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  20. Tarique Anwar, "Meet Grace Pinto: The woman responsible for Ryan International's BJP membership drive". First Post. 19 March 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  21. "Ryan International Group of Institutions: Management". Archived from the original on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
  22. Vinamrata Borwankar, "International Children's Festival of Performing Arts begins on Wednesday". Times of India. 5 January 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  23. "Ryan International Children's Festival of Performing Arts held in Mumbai". Times of India. 13 January 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  24. Rons Bantwal, "Mumbai: Ryan's 14th International Children's Festival of Performing Arts - 2016". bellevision.com. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  25. "Art festival for children". livemint.com. 5 January 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  26. "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories".
  27. "Ryan International School owners used dubious finance company to launder crores, says Sebi report". India Today. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  28. "Exclusive: Steep Fee Hikes & Stinking Toilets in Ryan Schools". 3 October 2017.
  29. "Review on Ryan International School Kundalahalli Bangalore by MouthShut User".
  30. "Class 4 Ryan International Student Beaten by Staff in Ludhiana". YouTube.
  31. "Bengaluru student assaulted by Ryan International School teacher for 'giggling'". 23 September 2017.
  32. "Exclusive: Ryan Schools and Their Abusive, Underpaid Teachers". 2 October 2017.
  33. Kumar, Ajay (9 November 2017). "Pradyuman murder: Detained Ryan student a porn addict, often carried knife to school". India Today. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  34. "Ryan International school in news for wrong reasons, again - OrissaPOST". Odisha News, Odisha Latest news, Odisha Daily - OrissaPOST. 10 August 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  35. "One murder, three families, and a long wait for justice". Hindustan Times. 8 September 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  36. Pandey, Munish (9 November 2017). "Pradyuman murder: CBI recreates crime scene, takes juvenile accused to school, knife shop". India Today. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
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