Average GPA of Iranian High School Seniors Announced as '10.89'

The head of the Center for Measurement and Evaluation of Education Quality states that the average GPA for the three fields of Experimental Sciences, Mathematics, and Humanities in Iran's twelfth grade, the final year of high school, is '10.89'. Mohsen Zarei assessed these scores as 'acceptable' on Wednesday, August 31, stating, 'There has been an increase of 0.55 in the overall scores across the three fields.' Mr. Zarei also announced that the average GPA for the twelfth grade in the Experimental Sciences field has reached '12', in Mathematics '11.82', and in Humanities '9.13'. He further stated, 'The performance of tenth-grade students has been better compared to the eleventh and twelfth grades.' According to this education official, the average scores of private schools in final exams in all three grades are lower than those of public schools. While Mohsen Zarei assessed this year's high school students' scores in Iran as 'acceptable', some journalists and teachers' union activists have attributed these scores to weaknesses in the ministry's 'policy-making'. Mohammad Habibi, a union activist and former political prisoner, wrote on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, August 31, that 'more than 1 million and 190 thousand students' have dropped out of school, noting that we are recording an average GPA of '10.89' at the beginning of Alireza Kazemi's tenure as Minister of Education. Mr. Habibi also pointed to a shortage of 'more than 200 thousand teaching staff', writing: 'The share of education in the public budget bill is '9.83 percent'. Fahimeh Tabatabai, a journalist, also described the state of science in Iran on social media as 'disastrous', writing: 'Congratulations to the country's policymakers.' Previously, the education policies had faced severe criticism from many union organizations. For instance, the Coordination Council of Teachers' Union Organizations of Iran warned last December about the Ministry of Education's action of 'replacing' school teachers with clerics, deeming it a 'reactionary' move and a return to the era of 'maktab-khaneh' (traditional schools). This organization warned Iranian families about the consequences of the systematic presence of clerics in schools and the dangers it poses to their children.