Government's Blame-Shifting on School Overcrowding in Tehran

Qasem Ahmadi Lashaki, the Deputy for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of the Ministry of Education, stated on Wednesday, January 9, that Tehran currently ranks 'second to last' in the country in terms of educational space, with only Sistan and Baluchestan having a worse situation. In an interview with the state news agency Tasnim, this government official shifted the blame for the lack of educational space in Tehran onto 'developers' and said that under current laws, developers are required to build one school for every 200 residential units, but many evade this law. According to Lashaki, some developers 'build 199 units instead of 200 to avoid building a school, which legally binds the hands of officials.' He did not mention the responsibility of the Islamic Republic in this regard. While the country's population policies promote 'increased childbirth,' this government official emphasized that the increase in 'student density' in classrooms leads to 'learning poverty,' which is particularly evident in public schools and at the elementary level. The shortage of schools and lack of educational spaces on one hand, and the absence of housing and energy supply on the other, have further highlighted the Islamic Republic's inability to meet the basic needs of the people. Despite these problems and fundamental crises, the concern of the Islamic Republic and its leadership is focused on population policies, the 'youthfulness of the population' plan, and the allocation of budgets and loans for childbirth, as well as changing textbooks to promote more ideological topics of the government. Iran: the second country in feeling insecure regarding land and housing ownership. Continuous failure of governments in the Islamic Republic to solve the housing problem. Four deciles of Iranian society have lost the ability to buy a house.