According to the Ministry of Education; 216,000 children have dropped out of school

Following the intensification of economic problems and the inability of some families to cover the costs of their children's education, the Deputy Minister of Primary Education announced that in the primary education sector for the academic year 1402-1403, there were approximately 216,243 children who had dropped out of school, of which only 31,518 have returned to education. The government news agency ILNA quoted Rezvan Hakimzadeh as stating that "three very important issues of educational justice, improving quality, and creating a sense of belonging to school and identity for students" are on our agenda. These remarks by Hakimzadeh come while she had previously stated on September 3 that there were 164,000 dropouts in Iran. There are many contradictory statements among officials, as the Vice President of the Education Commission in the Islamic Consultative Assembly also announced on Thursday, June 25, that the number of children who have dropped out of school in Iran is 911,000, including 400,000 primary school students. A review of official statistics shows that 70% of "dropouts" are related to income quintiles one to five. In this regard, Mohammad Molavi, a member of the Education Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, stated in July of this year that 279,000 children have dropped out due to "financial problems." Experts believe that the figures announced by the Ministry of Education only pertain to children who cannot enter the educational system, and on a larger scale, the number of dropouts is much higher. This group references statistics from the Research Center of the Parliament, which reported that the number of dropouts in the country in the year 1402 was 930,000. Analyzing the contradictory statistics regarding school dropouts in Iran, with two weeks until the start of the academic year in Iran, a local official stated that "about 12,000" eligible children for first grade in Tehran Province have not yet registered. The Ministry of Education reported 164,000 dropouts. "Seven areas of the country" are facing a shortage of schools, and the increase in "school dropouts" is due to poverty. A teachers' union activist, Morad Sahraei, stated that the quality of education has become monetized. The reduction in the education budget coincides with the dropout of more than 900,000 children from school.