The state government’s drive to inspect the newly registered schools’ status in meeting criteria under Right to Education Act has yielded mixed results.

Of the 160 private schools the Patna district affiliation team inspected from June 10 till Monday, as many as 47 have fulfilled the criteria under the act.

Total 1,649 private schools have registered themselves with the state government in Patna district.

Sources said the schools not fulfilling the rules would be given three years to do the same. If the schools fail to meet the criteria in the given duration, they would have to close down.

Sachindra Kumar, the Patna district programme officer, elementary education and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, who is also the member secretary of the committee for the district, told The Telegraph: “The private schools will have to fulfil the rules and criteria under the Right to Education Act. One of the norms mandates the number of classrooms to match with the number of teachers. If a school has untrained teachers, it would be given five years to get them trained. The schools are required to fulfil all the criteria under the Right to Education Act.”

Mridula Palit, the principal of Sister Nivedita Balika Vidyalaya, told The Telegraph: “We have three teachers for classes I to III. Among them, just one is trained. We have been given five years to get the others trained.”

Kumar added that schools affiliated to either the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) or the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) were being taken for granted to be fulfilling all the rules since they already have affiliation.

A three-member school affiliation committee has been formed in all the districts and is led by the convener.

The Patna district team is led by district education officer Arun Kumar Sharma. The other team members include Kumar and senior deputy collector Bhim Prasad, who has been nominated by the Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Singh.

Radiant International School vice-principal Radhika K. said: “The inspection team had come to our school. The members had certain queries regarding the criteria we fulfil and how we run the school. We responded to all their queries and they were satisfied.”

There are 70 and 18 schools affiliated to CBSE and CISCE, respectively, in Patna district till date.

Some other private schools the team visited included Loyola High School, St Karen’s Secondary School (Khagaul Road), DAV Public School (Cantonment Road, Khagaul), Radiant International School, Krishna Niketan (Buddha Colony), RPS Residential School (Bailey Road), Shivam Public School (Boring Road), Sister Nivedita Balika Vidyalaya (Chhajjubagh), Bishop’s Heritage School (Bihta) and St Joseph’s Convent Girls’ High School (Barh).