The Growing Trend of School Dropouts in Iran; Fani: We Have 930,000 Dropouts in the Country

The former Minister of Education has cited statistics from the Research Center of the Parliament, stating that the number of school dropouts in the country is 930,000, and these individuals will form the future illiterate population. Ali Asghar Fani emphasized that the migration of villagers to cities and the outskirts of large cities has led to a population shortage and sometimes depopulation in villages, which has also challenged educational equity. The Deputy Minister of Primary Education announced on August 19 that there has been an increase in dropouts at the primary level, with the latest statistics indicating 160,000 students have dropped out. Data shows that 70% of dropouts are from income brackets one to five. A senior official in the Ministry of Education announced on September 7, less than a month before the start of the school year, that nearly a quarter of first-grade children have not yet registered for school. Mojtaba Hashemi, head of the central registration office for students in the Ministry of Education, told ISNA news agency that "about 77.3% of first-grade students have completed their registration," meaning that 22.7% of children who should register for first grade have not yet done so. According to the Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly in March 2023, the "very low enrollment rate" of out-of-school children, alongside the "high annual dropout rate" ranging from 347,000 to 270,000, has caused the trend of "school dropout" in Iran's education system to grow. The unveiling of a directive to charge tuition fees from foreign students has expanded class discrimination. A government official stated that about a quarter of first-grade children have not yet registered for school. Dropouts continue; there are 160,000 dropouts at the primary level. The newspaper "Payam Ma" reported that teachers in border areas are migrating. The trend of child marriage is increasing in Iran; over 27,000 child marriages have been registered in the country in one year. There has been a "17% increase" in school dropouts; many Iranian children do not have the right to education.