LAHORE, July 12: Punjab Education Minister Akhtar Saeed has said his department has so far received application from the Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam alone for returning three colleges and nine schools.

He claimed that the education department has not yet received application for the denationalization of the Government FC College.

Speaking at a news conference at the Civil Secretariat on Friday, the minister, who was accompanied by education secretary Sibtain Fazl-i-Haleem, said the education department had already denationalized 53 schools in the province but no teacher came on roads to protest the policy. “Now I know teachers are launching an agitation because the education department has started considering denationalization of colleges,” he said.

He said the Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam had played a great role in promoting education in the country and it deserved that its institutions should be returned so that it could again serve the country.

Answering a question, he said the staff serving in nationalized institutions would remain the liability of the government until and unless they would decide to join the denationalized institution.

Answering another question, he said the education department had around 60,000 teaching and non-teaching posts lying vacant in schools and colleges in the province. “There will be no problem in adjusting all government employees serving in nationalized institutions after denationalization,” he added.

Answering another question about fear that fee would increase in denationalized institutions, the minister said though the government had not fixed any fee limit, it would continue to monitor fees and would not allow the management of denationalized institutions to raise them beyond the general public’s reach. He said the government had also notified that these schools managements would not raise the fee of any student, already enrolled in the institution, until they pass out. “The Punjab government has also approved to set up an endowment fund of Rs500 million to offer scholarships to needy students. The students studying in denationalized institutions will also be eligible to seek scholarships,” he claimed.

Commenting on another apprehension that the fees had already increased manifold in the Government College, Lahore; Lahore College for Women and Kinnaird College for Women, the minister claimed that there was not a single example that a student qualified for admission on merit was refused admission to these colleges. He said the education department had already given millions of rupees to these institutions to help the needy students.

Commenting on teachers and students unions’ threat to launch a protest campaign against the denationalization policy, he said, “The teachers will suspend their strike after reading my press conference as they have no solid reason to protest. We are ready to take the responsibility of all government employees and watch the interests of our students.”

Explaining other initiatives in education sector, the minister said the science and mathematics curricula had been revised and implemented. All the primary schools teachers were trained to use new teaching methodologies in last summer vacation, while the middle schools teachers were currently undergoing training at some 750 training centres in the province. The high and higher secondary school teachers would also be trained during the ongoing summer vacation, he added.

The minister said the education department also changed the annual examination system into a continuous assessment system from April 1 this year. He said the education department had also issued guidelines to conduct the Class-IX, X, XI and XIII annual examinations to be conducted by the eights boards of education in the province. Now he said the examination would not test students’ memorization skills but their capability of comprehension and practicability of the acquired knowledge.

He said the education department also started ICS classes in around 4,500 institutions and upgraded afternoon schools under public-private partnership in 6,000 schools in the province. “All this revolution was brought without spending a single penny. Rather we earned a share from private parties’ income,” he added.

He said the education department was also considering to launch BCS courses in colleges in collaboration with the private parties in near future.

The minister said the education department also restructured universities and started four-year courses in some science and technology related departments to start university education right after intermediate. He said the government was also embarking to launch the schools of biological sciences, mathematical sciences, physical sciences and Khwarzmi Institute of Computer Sciences to impart education of international standards.