A Teachers' Union: The Education Department of Kurdistan Hinders Civil Society Activities

The Coordination Council of Teachers' Trade Unions of Iran criticized the Kurdistan Province Education Department for preventing civil society organizations from providing services to students. In a statement on Sunday, December 2, the nationwide teachers' organization pointed out that the student community is facing 'a massive wave of social and behavioral crises such as addiction, delinquency, child labor, child marriage, school dropout, learning disabilities, and suicide.' The statement mentioned that the Kurdistan Education Department has issued a directive threatening school principals to refrain from cooperating with NGOs. This is despite the fact that NGOs operate 'professionally and voluntarily' in areas such as 'counseling, education, addiction prevention, social harm, skill training, and treatment of learning disabilities.' According to information released by the Statistical Center of Iran, nearly one million students dropped out of school last academic year. Rezvan Hakimzadeh, the Deputy Minister of Primary Education, recently reported that 40% of children entering schools face 'learning poverty' and that the educational system in Iran is also dealing with the concept of 'learning dropout.' Human rights activists in Iran announced on November 14 that at least 31 students have committed suicide since the beginning of the current Iranian year, resulting in the deaths of 26 of them. The Coordination Council of Teachers' Trade Unions of Iran assessed the direct threats against school principals of 'disciplinary and even judicial actions' by the Kurdistan Education Department as an attempt to 'silence civil society' and 'narrow-mindedness and obstinacy against specialized civil institutions.' This teachers' council considers the current formal education system and its destructive policies as 'the cause and generator of some harms or the intensifier of their severity' for students and emphasizes the necessity of 'utilizing the motivation and capacity of capable NGOs.' While educational deficiencies and crises have intensified in recent years, Islamic Republic officials have focused on changing the content of textbooks. Changing textbook content and educational approaches in schools has been a concern of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic for years. Ali Khamenei has repeatedly called for a review of textbook content in recent years. In May 2022, during a meeting with teachers and educators from across the country, he stated that 'useless content in textbooks should be removed.' He did not provide clarification on what he meant by 'useless content.'