75,000 First Graders Out of School

Mohammad Lotfi, a representative of non-governmental organizations abbreviated as "NGOs", reported in an interview with ILNA news agency that there are 75,000 first graders out of school in Iran. Lotfi stated that this was one of the points raised in the third meeting of the Council for Organizing Working and Street Children, which addressed issues such as poverty reduction and children's education ahead of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Radio Farda inquired about the 75,000 out-of-school first graders from Hossein Ghazian, a sociologist residing in the United States: Hossein Ghazian: This issue has various reasons. One reason related to the people is poverty, as many of these children are forced to work and are considered child laborers. Thus, for their families, it is not important for them to pursue education since it incurs costs, while their work generates income. On the other hand, there are places where access to education is not available, meaning that going to school is not that easy. Additionally, the costs associated with education have prevented some from accessing schooling. This may stem from the government's incorrect policies, as the government spends a lot of resources on educating those who are older and are leaving or have left the labor market. This could be deferred to voluntary activities, and the costs could be allocated to educating those who need it from the bottom up, preventing an increase in the number of illiterates from below each year. Another issue is that the government has neglected its legal obligations, both in the Constitution and in current laws, in this regard. Moreover, the laws themselves are not properly enforced. This means that Iran has joined the Convention on the Rights of the Child and that in laws related to compulsory public education, parents are obliged to enroll their children, and they may even face imprisonment if they do not. However, we know that there is neither information on this matter nor is the government capable of enforcing these laws correctly. All of this has contributed to many children being unable to enter the education system each year. Mr. Ghazian, in your view, why does the Iranian government not sufficiently support NGOs related to children and not give them enough space? Because the nature, structure, and historical identity of our government is such that it views these types of organizations with suspicion. This is because it feels they may pose a threat to the survival and stability of the government. This means they might be able to organize people, organize demands, and thereby stand against the government and become independent of it. The government wants everything to be under its control, both unwanted and unannounced movements and places that are supposed to be organized and become a place for empowering people. It wants to control these because it sees them as a threat to itself. However, for all societies, having a strong civil society is a kind of defensive shield for governments. It allows them to withstand chaotic rebellion that arises from a lack of space for people's demands and desires. Because those organizations help these demands to find a process, gain order, and find a channel, and this channel contains the flood of demands and prevents it from completely hitting the government and destroying it. But since the government relies on its repressive power and believes it can suppress opponents in this way, it prevents such organizations and institutions that empower civil society and strengthen it, and thus hinders non-governmental organizations, which are one of the channels for organizing civil society. Mohammad Lotfi, a representative of NGOs, told ILNA news agency that with the efforts of the National Child Rights Authority and the Ministry of Cooperatives, a database or information system for children is being established, and children will be registered based on their national ID numbers, revealing where the child lives and how they can be supported. In your view, how much can the establishment of such a system help improve the situation of working children in Iran? In that we currently do not know who the children are that drop out of school at any level or do not enter education at all or are currently working, and what distribution exists across the country, this could be very effective. It provides comprehensive information to planners and policymakers to think about this issue. It can also help researchers understand what is going on. In this regard, it may be beneficial and also facilitate legal actions against those who prevent children's education. However, since this also requires technical infrastructure and software infrastructure, the government has not shown that it can be very successful in this area so far. There is not a very promising outlook, and moreover, in systems that try to control people, the existence of such things will always be a cause for concern, even when it concerns children and not adults.