There is a certain ambiguity about this in the Act. Section 25(1) says that the PTR ratio shall be maintained in each school within six months of notification of the Act. However for implementing the schedule of norms and standards of the school, that prescribes the PTR ratio, a three year time period has been given. States like Bihar, UP, Assam and Orissa that need to recruit a huge number of new teachers could use this ambiguity by sanctioning all the required posts and redeploying teachers in the first six months, and complete all the recruitments as early as possible, within the three year time frame.