Government Official's Reaction to the 'Monetization' of Education for Foreign Students; Costs Similar to Iranian Students

The Secretary of the 'National Children's Rights Authority' in the Islamic Republic responded to reports regarding the 'monetization' of education for foreign students and the dropout of two-thirds of these students, stating that according to Ali Khamenei's directive, the educational costs for foreign students in both core and extracurricular programs are similar to those of Iranian students. Seyed Ali Kazemi also announced the facilitation of the enrollment process for Afghan children in schools, mentioning that a unified system for foreigners and migrants has been established in the Ministry of Interior for this purpose. According to Kazemi, there are approximately 700,000 Afghan students currently studying in Iranian schools. On September 4, the newspaper 'Ham-Mihan' reported, criticizing the normalization of paid education by the Minister of Education, that a directive from the Ministry of Education mandates foreign students to pay tuition fees, leading to the dropout of two-thirds of them. The newspaper claimed that the Ministry of Education issued a directive early in the summer requiring school administrators to collect tuition fees from foreign students, contrary to previous years. Based on this directive, the tuition fees for foreign students in the first to sixth grades were reported to be 600,000 tomans, for the first year of secondary school 800,000 tomans, for the second year of secondary school 1 million tomans, and for vocational and technical school students 1.2 million tomans. The unveiling of the directive for collecting tuition from foreign students indicates an expansion of class discrimination. A government official stated that 'self-governing schools for foreigners' will be shut down if they do not obtain licenses.