Two Months After the Start of the School Year; 'Schools Without Teachers' Confirmed Despite Minister's Denial

Despite the Iranian Minister of Education's announcement that there are no 'schools without teachers', Iranian media have reported that several schools in the new academic year are still without teachers. According to the Fars news agency, at least '3 schools' in the city of Rigan in eastern Kerman province still lack teachers two months into the new school year. Consequently, over '50 nomadic students' in the villages of 'Nayi, Padok, and Kashnal' in Rigan have been without a teacher for two months. Reza Morad Sahraei, the Minister of Education, claimed on November 1st that 'there are no classes without teachers' in Iran, despite widespread criticism from teachers, teacher union activists, and some members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly regarding the severe shortage of teachers and classes without teachers in schools. On the other hand, Jahandoz Sabki, one of the parents of the students without a teacher, told Fars news agency: 'Is our child different from the children of officials that their children can study while ours remain uneducated?' Maryam Sabki, another parent of these students, also stated that 'two months have passed in the new school year, but our children are without teachers; officials should not double our deprivation.' Previously, news sources in Iran reported in May that a shortage of '300,000 teachers' in the country has created a 'serious crisis' in schools. Meanwhile, the Tasnim news agency, affiliated with Iran's security institutions, reported on November 17th about a new crisis in education, stating that several thousand teachers have not received a single rial in salary from the beginning of the school year until that day. Education in Iran faces serious challenges, including teachers' dissatisfaction with their livelihoods, delayed salaries across various levels, a lack of public funding, the presence of protesting students, and ineffective government management, which has repeatedly manifested in street gatherings or protests within schools. While schools in the Islamic Republic face a shortage of teachers and unanswered livelihood demands from many educators, responsible officials, including those in the Ministry of Education, are considering separating textbooks for girls and boys. Hiring 20,000 'caretakers' for schools; changing the status of service-purchased teachers; perhaps another time. Air pollution is a new educational problem; 40% of study time is lost due to weather conditions. Closure of private schools in Zahedan due to management by Sunni clerics. Twenty percent of schools in Iran are dilapidated.