Education Minister's Response to Criticism: We Do Not Have Classes Without Teachers

Reza Morad Sahraei, the Minister of Education of the Islamic Republic, despite widespread criticism from teachers, teacher union activists, and some members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly regarding the severe shortage of teachers and classes without teachers in schools, stated that "there are no classes without teachers" in Iran. According to the website Entekhab, in a television program, he claimed, based on what he referred to as the "report of the general managers of education," that "we do not have classes without teachers anywhere in the country." This government official, announcing that "all education is teachers, from the minister to the secretary," added: "In places where we did not have teachers, education department experts, school deputies, and principals followed the class." These statements from the Minister of Education come at a time when he had previously stated on October 5 that a number of classes had been left "without teachers" and that teachers would be provided for them by mid-October, claiming that "there is no accurate statistic on the number of classes without teachers." Earlier, news sources in Iran reported on May 23 of this year that the shortage of "300,000 teachers" had created a "serious crisis" in schools. Furthermore, following the news of the teacher shortage for "23,000 classes," equivalent to about 460,000 students, Mohammad Taghi Fallahi, the secretary of the Tehran Teachers' Union, identified the "severe budget deficit in education" as one of the main factors behind this issue. Meanwhile, the website Rouydad 24 reported on Tuesday, November 9, that discussions regarding the impeachment of the Minister of Education in the Islamic Consultative Assembly had become serious "due to the chaotic state of the country's educational system."