Patna, March 27: District magistrate (DM) Sanjay Kumar Singh today said all the schools would have to abide by the Right to Education Act and it has to be implemented from the next academic session.

Representatives from 65 schools took part in a meeting convened by the DM to review if the institutions were admitting underprivileged children according to the rules. All the schools have been given a deadline of March 31 to complete the admission procedure but submit a report on the total seats in their schools beforehand. Fifty per cent of the underprivileged children in a school have to be girls.

Father George Nedumattam, the principal of St Xavier’s High School, said: “Underprivileged children should be trained for a year before they study with other children from the next session.”

Singh welcomed the suggestion but said: “If that is done, the implementation of the act won’t be possible this year again. It has to be done this time.”

Singh added that schools having less number of seats than the number of applicants will have to conduct random selection for admissions both for the 25 and 75 per cent quota.

Schools, which have not received sufficient applications from underprivileged children, will have to keep the 25 per cent quota vacant. In that case, Bihar State Child Rights Protection Commission will provide underprivileged candidates to such schools.

The DM said for the initial seven to 10 days in the new session, underprivileged children should be allowed in casual dress until uniforms are provided to them.