Economic Problems Cause Half of Student Dropouts in Iran

The head of the Literacy Movement Organization stated that 53% of student dropouts in Iran are due to 'economic and financial problems' and added that 35% of dropouts are related to 'cultural issues.' According to a report on Tuesday, August 2, by IRNA, Ali Baqerzadeh, at a signing ceremony for a cooperation agreement between the Literacy Movement Organization and the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, announced that 12 to 15% of dropouts are also due to educational issues. Mr. Baqerzadeh did not mention the statistics of dropouts in Iran, but unofficial statistics indicate that there are 3.2 million children who have dropped out of school in the country. Many children who have left school due to economic and financial reasons have become child laborers, engaging in street vending and working in workshops. According to official statistics, there are 2 million child laborers in Iran, but unofficial figures suggest that the number of child laborers is 7 million. Many of these children have either dropped out of school or have never experienced sitting in a classroom. The number of such children in Iran is increasing due to economic, cultural, and educational problems. Child laborers are defined as children who are continuously and sustainably employed, which often deprives them of attending school and threatens their mental and physical health. According to Article 30 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, 'The government is obliged to provide free education for all people until the end of secondary education and to expand higher education free of charge to the extent of the country's self-sufficiency.' Article 28 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was signed by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1991, also states that access to education is the right of all children under 18 years old. Experts consider 'poverty' as one of the factors leading to dropouts. Child laborers, children from the outskirts of cities, and street children are some of the numerous categories of children who drop out of school due to poverty. Saeed Piyvandi, a sociologist residing in Paris, believes that 'dropping out of the educational cycle is more prevalent in remote and peripheral areas, and in border provinces in the south, east, and west of Iran, the phenomenon of dropping out is observed more widely.' Mr. Piyvandi expressed in a note for Radio Farda that 'Although Iran has made serious achievements in the quantitative growth of higher education, the simultaneous existence of early dropout phenomena has led the country to face a kind of contradictory duality.' According to this sociologist, 'The disordered state of Iran's educational system in a world where knowledge, expertise, and skills have become the main factors for economic and social advancement has long been lost in the noise of politics.'