Consequences of Poverty Expansion in Iran: 556,000 Adolescents Drop Out Before Entering High School

The Statistical Center of the Islamic Republic announced that at least "556,000 Iranian adolescents" are forced to "drop out" before entering high school, primarily due to "poverty and deprivation." According to the website Didban Iran, citing the "Social and Cultural Status Report of Iran Spring 1402" published by the Statistical Center of Iran, in the 1402-1401 academic year, more than 556,000 children aged "15 to 17" dropped out of school, including 295,000 boys and 261,000 girls. The report indicates that the "dropout rate" for primary education was "0.99%" in the 95-96 academic year, but after five years, it rose to "1.2%" in the 1401-1402 academic year, while the dropout rate for middle school increased from "4.11%" to "5.47%", indicating an upward trend. This report comes at a time when, according to Etemad, Ali Asghar Fani, former Minister of Education, announced on September 19, based on statistics from the Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, that the number of "dropouts" in Iran is "930,000," stating that they will form the "illiterates of the future." Additionally, Didban Iran reported that the latest report from the Statistical Center emphasizes that due to the expansion of poverty and further reduction in children's access to educational resources and facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, the deprivation of Iranian children from education has intensified. Furthermore, the Teachers' Union of Fars Province issued a message on the first of Mehr titled "Mehr Month and Those Left Behind," stating that we begin the school year while "thousands of children have dropped out for various reasons, and working children, as 'small victims of poverty,' are among the effects of these dropouts." The website Tejarat News also reported on September 29 that, based on a survey by the Capital Opinion Polling Center, the average price of school supplies has increased by "50%." According to the results of this survey, about "60%" of Tehran households pay tuition for their children's education, and more than "53%" of students in Tehran walk to school because the cost of school transportation has also increased by more than "50%" compared to last year. Concurrently with the intensification of dropout rates and the continuation of education deprivation for Iranian children, the Islamic Republic government has taken actions such as expelling, suspending, arresting, or depriving part of the educational staff of their activities under the pretext of demanding labor rights or expressing civil protests. Among the demands of teachers and teacher union activists in recent years has been the provision of free education and the end of the monetization policy of schools.