Goodbye School; 930,000 Students Dropped Out in the Last Academic Year

Statistics released by the Statistical Center of Iran indicate that nearly 930,000 students dropped out of school in the 2022-2023 academic year across three educational levels: primary, middle school, and high school. According to these statistics, over 175,000 primary school students, 198,000 middle school students, and 557,000 high school students have not continued their education. Experts believe that economic issues are the main reason for dropping out, with the high dropout rate among male high school students also attributed to their early entry into the labor market. Among girls, marriage before the age of 18 is cited as one of the reasons for dropping out. The Statistical Center of the Islamic Republic also announced in October that at least '556,000 Iranian adolescents' are forced to 'drop out' before entering high school, primarily due to 'poverty and deprivation.' Statistics show that the 'dropout rate' for primary education was '0.99%' in the 2016-2017 academic year, but after five years, it reached '1.2%' in the 2021-2022 academic year. In middle school, the dropout rate was '4.11%' and gradually increased to '5.47%', indicating an upward trend. A review of inflation statistics during the mentioned years shows that from 2016 to 2023, inflation in Iran has been on the rise, and there is a significant correlation between the inflation rate and the dropout trend. Accordingly, inflation in Iran was around 10% in 2016 and 2017, rising to over 27% in 2018. In 2019, inflation reached 35%, and in 2020 it exceeded 36%. By 2021, inflation surpassed 46%, and it remained above 46% in 2022. The increase in living costs in Iran and the imbalance between income and expenses have led families to eliminate essential expenses such as education, healthcare, and other necessities to cover housing and food costs. A responsible official stated: 'We have 7.4 million illiterates, 100,000 dangerous classrooms; the future of three and a half million students is under unsafe roofs, 1.5 million children are on the verge of dropping out; 14 million children lack proper food.' There are contradictions in the statistics regarding the number of 'working children', ranging from 120,000 to 12,000; the number of street children in Iran is on the rise. The education crisis in Iran is expanding; rural kindergartens have been closed due to budget cuts and the elimination of hot meals.