The start of the school year is considered a social transformation all over the world. Millions of families send their children off with hope and excitement, and children rush to school with eagerness to learn and experience a new world. Elementary and high schools, after months of silence and inactivity, come back to life with the joyful hustle of students, and life in the streets and neighborhoods takes on a different color with the presence of large numbers of students.
However, for years, under the rule of the mullahs, Iran has been unfamiliar with this image of joy and hope. Every year, the start of the school year is accompanied by the worries and sorrow of millions of Iranian families who are unable to cover their children’s educational expenses, and by the longing gazes of children who, due to poverty, are left out of school and education.
In the 2021–2022 academic year, more than 2 million students either dropped out or were unable to attend school, meaning they couldn’t even make it to first grade. In the 2023–2024 school year, more than 1.2 million students dropped out.
State media report that “790,000 students were not registered” for the new academic year (Source: Tasnim News Agency, September 21).
Public schools, citing low grades or lack of space and capacity, refuse to enroll students or make enrollment conditional on paying large sums that families cannot afford. This is because the government budget for schools is insufficient to cover their needs, such as repairs or winter fuel.
The Ministry of Education’s budget this year has been announced at 25.68 trillion rials, equivalent to 4 billion dollars. This amount is almost nothing when compared to a student population of 17 million with about 1 million teachers and educators. It’s worth noting that the additional budget allocated this year to law enforcement, on top of its annual budget, was also 4 billion dollars.
According to state media, Iran ranks 112th in the world out of 166 countries in spending on public education. In contrast, Japan’s education budget is 165 billion euros, Saudi Arabia’s is 32 billion euros, and Turkey’s is 22.2 billion euros.
The large gap between the meager education budget and its actual needs is either filled by extorting money from families or by reducing the quantity and quality of education.
After passing the hurdle of registration, parents face the heavy costs of books, stationery, and transportation. State media report a 20% increase in the price of school supplies compared to last year. The head of the Tehran Stationery and Engineering Equipment Sellers Union estimates the cost of the simplest stationery set at around 10 million rials. This amount increases throughout the school year for stationery supplies. As a result, millions of families, unable to cover these costs, forgo sending their children to school.
But the story of discrimination and inequality doesn’t end there. If a student manages to pass these hurdles and enter school, they will encounter a school lacking even minimum standards. According to the head of the Fire Department, “over 50% of Tehran’s schools are unsafe” (Source: Arman-e Emrooz news website, September 14).
From the state of the schools in the capital, one can somewhat imagine the condition of schools in deprived provinces. Thousands of classes across the country are held in huts, barns, containers, and mud-brick rooms, lacking even the most basic living conditions.
The quality of education in public schools is far more dismal than the physical conditions. For instance, the education system faces a shortage of 200,000 teachers. As a result, students are unable to learn much during the academic year. According to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Education, the average student GPA in Sistan and Baluchistan in the last academic year was around 7 (source August 16, Arman-e Emrooz). This means a terrifying drop in education standards and a rise in failure rates. The national average GPA is slightly above 10 out of 20.
This situation pertains to public schools. In an education system that has become highly class-based, the situation is different for the children of the upper class and regime affiliates, the so-called “good genes.” In private schools, tuition starts at 550 million rials and can rise to 1.5 to 2 billion rials or even higher.
On September 21, Didban-e Iran news website reported: “Statistics show that 93% of the top ranks in the 2024 university entrance exams were from private schools.” As a result, the children of workers and low-income groups have no chance of accessing university and higher education.
It is for this reason that schools, like universities, are potential centers of protest and uprising. In the uprisings of December 2017, November 2019, and the months-long nationwide protests of 2022, students were on the front lines of anti-regime protests.