RAWALPINDI, July 13: The owners of the government educational institutions, which had been recently denationalized, have been granted the discretion to raise the students’ fees, it has been learnt.

The increased fee will be charged from those students who take admission to these institutions after the denationalization. The students already enrolled will, however, be exempted from the new fee structure.

According to the terms and conditions set for denationalization of schools and colleges, the private owners have been allowed to fix the admission and other fees according to their wish after the present students pass out of these institutions.

However, these institutions will use the same medium of instruction and for the time being follow the same curriculum of Islamiyat which is being taught in other government institutions. The new management will have the discretion to terminate the services of all teaching and non-teaching staff and make new recruitments.

The staff of these institutions will continue to be government servants and their pay and other emoluments, as admissible to them under the government rules, will be paid by the private management until they are adjusted in other institutions. The staff will, however, have the option to stay on with the new management if both parties agree to such an arrangement.

The employees will also continue to enjoy medical facilities as in government service. The government will transfer all accumulated benefits of pension, levy and other entitlements in case those staffers, who have served in the government for more than 10 years, wanted to serve under the private management.

The institutions will continue to operate on the same site and the land/building of the institution will not be altered for any purpose other than education.

The old owners of these institutions — before they had been nationalized in the early 70s — will have to forego claims of all kinds against the government. The government will not charge anything from the private owners for the transfer of the buildings, alterations made to them after nationalization and for the equipment supplied.

College/school funds collected from the students of the institutions will also stay with the new management and will be utilized for the same purpose for which these had been collected.

Meanwhile, teachers and students of all educational institutions in the city continued their protests against the privatization for the fourth consecutive day.

Teachers, lecturers and senior professors of all colleges wore black straps around their arms.

A meeting of the executive council of the Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association was also held in this regard. Union leaders from Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum and Rawalpindi districts attended the meeting which was presided over by PPLA president Mohammad Ilyas Qureshi.

The participants of the meeting expressed concern over the privatization of these institutions.

The private owners have also been allowed to raise fees for the new students which means that the government wants to shut the door of education on the younger generation, he said.