Deputy Minister of Education Confirms: Only One Twelfth Grade Student Achieved a GPA of 20

While news circulated on social media stating that 'only one person achieved a GPA of 20 in this year's final exams among the three fields of experimental sciences, mathematics, and humanities,' Morteza Kazemi, Deputy Minister of Secondary Education of the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Education, also stated that the results 'almost' confirm this claim. Meanwhile, Mohsen Zarei, head of the Evaluation and Quality Assurance Center of the Education System, has neither 'confirmed nor denied' this claim. However, field reports and conversations with students and their parents indicate the 'high difficulty of the questions posed in the final exams,' a matter that the Deputy Minister believes is due to the 'conceptual' nature of the questions. The final exams for the twelfth grade held in June of this year, which according to Islamic Republic educational officials will account for '50 percent' of the results of next year's university entrance exam and '60 percent' thereafter, faced numerous protests from students, experts, and parents. Qasem Ahmadi Lashaki, the legal and parliamentary deputy of the Minister of Education, had previously stated that in this year's final exams for the twelfth grade, 'perhaps 2 points of students' GPAs have decreased' because the exams were 'conducted like entrance exams,' and the reason for this is that the 'Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution' approved that the impact of these exam scores on this year's entrance exam would be '40 percent.' Given all these changes, this year's final exams were of greater sensitivity for students. Challenges in 'grading papers' in Iran's educational system; sending threatening text messages to protesting teachers. A security umbrella over school exams; the Ministry of Education's request to the Cyber Police to intervene in final exams. Warning against in-person school activities in Iran: 'We have suffered for it and will suffer again.'