Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, June 7, 2019 – Mohammad Bathaei, the minister of education in the regime ruling Iran, has officially resigned following a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Some reports say Bathaei intends to run for a seat in the Majlis (parliament) in February 2020, according to the state-run IRNA news agency is reporting that.
Various state-run outlets are describing this resignation as a sign of the Rouhani cabinet’s incapability to provide for due paychecks and pensions for teachers and education providers.
Through the entire span of this school year, teachers and education providers have time and again went on strike, protesting poor job and living conditions.
The resignation comes after Iranian teachers held several nationwide strikes over the last two years to protest low wages. Since April, some Majlis members had begun to talk about Bathaei's impeachment.
Bathaei took office in August 2017 after the Majlis voted him in as a minister during Rouhani's second term.
Following a nationwide call for rallies on the country’s Teachers Day back in May 2, teachers in the cities of Tehran, Torbate Heydarieh, Sanandaj, Urmia, Yazd, Hamedan, Divandareh, Malard, Tabriz, Qazvin, Javanrud, Ardabil, Kermanshah, Homayunshahr, Sari, Khoramabad, Marivan, Mayabad, Karaj and Mashhad held rallies outside the regime’s Education Departments.
This was the first such nationwide rally in the new Iranian calendar year (starting on March 21). Prior to that, teachers, workers, retirees, “deposit losers” and medical personnel have been the pioneers in holding nationwide protest rallies for voicing a variety of economic, social and political demands.
Teachers and workers played a special role in continuing efforts to have their rightful demands fulfilled. Teachers were also seen holding a number of nationwide protest rallies in 2018 that gained international coverage and imposed a significant social impact on Iran’s political spectrum.
