Patna, March 9: Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar will hold a meeting on March 27 to review if schools were adhering to the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

According to the act to be implemented this academic session onwards, the schools must reserve 25 per cent of their seats in Nursery and Class I for underprivileged children staying in the vicinity.

The schools have been asked to attend the meeting with the list of the names of the underprivileged children they have admitted.

On the other hand, most of the schools have expressed dissatisfaction over the manner of the implementation of the act. Authorities of several schools said they were ready to implement the act, but for that, there should be clear instructions from the state government. Some of the schools have already started admitting underprivileged children.

The district magistrate has notified the schools to attend the meeting to be held later this month with the list of the names of underprivileged children they have admitted in Nursery and Class I.

Sources at various schools in the city said a letter they recently received states that the schools have to complete the admission procedure this year by March 22. The schools have to release the admission forms by March 15.

The letter also adds if the number of seats in the schools is less than the number of applications, then the random selection method would have to be adopted.

Also the schools have to notify Bihar Child Rights Protection Commission and district education officer’s office about when they would hold the random selection.

No school can prevent the admission of a child for lack of proper documents, the letter said, adding the school can give notifications to produce the documents during the admission process, without which admission would be cancelled.

School authorities said the state and the central governments are ready to pay a certain amount for the fees of the underprivileged children, but things have not been clarified as far as the stationery and uniforms are concerned.

Many schools across the country have filed petitions at the Supreme Court as they do not find it appropriate to let the underprivileged students sit with the rest of them.