Government adds to compensation for those excluded from higher education during communism

Meanwhile, the government of outgoing Prime Minister Jan Fischer, who has formally resigned but continues to head the cabinet, has decided to provide an additional 25 million crowns in damages to persons excluded from higher education for political reasons between the years 1948 and 1956. Mr Fischer said that the compensation was a moral issue, and that it would be paid for from the government’s budget reserve. Persons who were denied higher education on political grounds during that eight year period can claim up to 100,000 crowns in damages. While the Ministry of Education originally believed that there are still roughly 500 such people, nearly twice as many have applied thus far.