Policy of Extracting 'Confession Letters' from Teachers Condemned by the Coordinating Council of Teachers' Trade Unions of Iran

The Coordinating Council of Teachers' Trade Unions of Iran condemned what it termed 'shameless actions to extract confession letters from educational colleagues' in a statement. This organization pointed out that teachers who have been excluded from the ranking law have been asked to write to the Ministry of Education's evaluation board, stating that 'due to having faced some performance issues during their service, they express regret for their performance and request special consideration and a review to benefit from the advantages of the teachers' ranking system.' The Coordinating Council criticized what it called 'deviation from the ethics of ignorant designers and violators of the ranking plan,' adding: 'By what ranking criteria did you exclude these teachers that you want to establish so vilely and extract confessions from innocent teachers?' The statement noted the Ministry of Education's efforts to obtain confession letters from teachers, stating: 'This commitment indicates that the purpose of the ranking is, in addition to delaying the payment of teachers' rightful salaries, to serve as a tool in the project of subjugating the government and silencing dissenting voices.' The Coordinating Council added: 'How can it be so brazen to deny citizens, especially teachers who are the custodians of culture, the right to participate and supervise, which exists in every part of the Constitution and in every part of the ethical charter of any religion or ideology?' The council warned that according to Article 570 of the Islamic Penal Code, 'the authorities and perpetrators of this vile act should be imprisoned and dismissed from service.' Furthermore, the council called on teachers across the country to refuse to sign such commitments and to file legal complaints while insisting on their rightful ranking requests. Previously, the newspaper Etemad reported that the Ministry of Interior, in a directive in 2022, proposed 'removing ranking' and 'downgrading ranks' as strategies to counter teachers' protests. In this context, dozens of teachers excluded from the ranking plan criticized the government’s 'deliberate or negligent disregard for educators' in an open letter to President Ebrahim Raisi and expressed regret over the government's 'security-oriented' view of teachers' union activities. In this regard, Sattar Rahmani, a member of the Teachers' Union and university professors in the UK, told Voice of America that the government has used an iron fist against teachers' protests over the past two decades, employing all logistical, media, and security resources, including imprisonment, threats of dismissal, early retirement, and downgrading the ranks of 20,000 school administrators who did not collaborate with security forces during peak protests. He added that the complex implementation of the ranking system is used to suppress this movement. He pointed out that in the ranking system, teachers are evaluated based on 'general competence, specialized competence, professional competence, and experience,' and emphasized that 'in terms of general competence indicators, they want the ranked teacher to adhere to the beliefs, attitudes, convictions, and behaviors based on the value, cultural, and ethical system of the Islamic community and the education system of the country, and must have proven this throughout their service.' He also noted that otherwise, the other criteria would be nullified under the priority of the government's policy. He stated that teachers who do not receive the general competence score must repent before their masters, refrain from protests, strikes, and political discussions in class, and remain silent even if their salaries are delayed, waiting for divine mercy. He argued that the criteria for scoring in the education ranking should be based on years of service, educational qualifications, personal and professional competencies in employing various teaching methods, pedagogical skills, and familiarity with the application of pedagogy in education, which is currently lacking. This union activist questioned, 'Is there a greater humiliation and insult than forcing a teacher to accept this in order to receive a 5 to 10 percent salary increase?' He added that the impact of such policies will affect the quality of student education. Sattar Rahmani emphasized that such policies will have dire consequences that will impose significant costs on working families and added: 'The government recognizes no boundaries in suppressing the teachers' movement, disregarding its own laws, and every official is 'fire at will' to achieve their goals.' He described the aim of extracting commitments as creating division, weakening morale, demonstrating government power, and undermining the organization and solidarity of teachers. Rahmani stated: 'The fact that a small number of teachers, due to very difficult financial conditions, submit to this humiliation may please the rulers, but such efforts are like a band-aid on a deep wound, hoping that the pain will heal, while the wound is so deep that there is no hope for healing it with verbal remedies or piecemeal policies that create division among some teachers.' Three teachers' organizations criticized the 'crisis of justice, legitimacy, and quality' in Iran's education system.