Hassan Rouhani Criticizes the Educational System in Iranian Schools

The President of Iran criticized the country's educational system, stating that the current textbooks in schools "educate students for yesterday and nothing for tomorrow." He mentioned that the textbooks in Iranian schools have not changed significantly compared to the 1930s and 1940s, except for superficial changes, and that education should teach students "skills" and "tolerance for others' thoughts." According to the IRNA news agency, Hassan Rouhani made these remarks on Saturday (September 23) during the inauguration ceremony of the 2017-2018 school year at a girls' technical school in Tehran. Rouhani said, "My judgment may be harsh; the textbooks we had in elementary and high school in the 1930s and 1940s have not changed much from today, except for the cover photo and font or some phrases that have changed." He criticized the lack of skill training classes in Iranian schools, except for technical schools, and complained that the educational method in Iran is such that "we read more and memorize to get good grades in exams or do well on tests." He added, "Students in our country, after getting their diploma, if they do not go to university two years later and engage in regular work, when compared to a student who studied and graduated in a developed country, we see that after a few years, that student has more than the Iranian student, why?" Rouhani stated that "our performance is memorization-based and relies on memory, and over time, just like ice in water, our memorization decreases." The Iranian President called for replacing memorization content with responses to questions from students and said, "Let a large part of the textbook be written by students over the coming years and let creativity and skills be revived in students." According to him, "Students should not be ashamed to ask questions. If we do not know something, we should not be ashamed. Asking questions is good and is our way to progress." Rouhani also said that before the start of Mohammad Bat'hai's work as the Minister of Education in the twelfth government, he asked him to ensure that at the end of 12 years of school, "students should have a skill so that if they do not continue their education, they can enter social activities." According to Rouhani, education in Iran should be such that "after 12 years, we do not just give a paper to students as a certificate, but teach a skill that they can present as growth and secondary education in the workplace wherever they go." According to ILNA, Rouhani also called for "tolerance for others' thoughts and respect for others' thoughts" in schools. He explained his meaning of tolerating others by saying, "When someone says something, we laugh or boo or frown, it means we do not tolerate others' thoughts. We must respect others' thoughts, and this is up to the students and teachers themselves." The President of Iran added that "we must learn how to tolerate others' thoughts and respect others' thoughts in the school environment and how we can respect others and ultimately behave politely." Rouhani addressed the students, saying, "We must have tolerance in life. We must tolerate the thoughts and lifestyles of others." The eleventh government under Hassan Rouhani also unveiled its educational program based on the UN program in December 2016. The UN educational program, known as the UNESCO document, stipulates that all member states of this organization must provide "equal opportunities for high-quality and lifelong inclusive education" for all individuals living in these countries, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or age, by 2030. Meanwhile, media and figures close to the conservatives in Iran have assessed this document as a "conspiracy" for "influence" in the country and have called for its cessation. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, has also strongly opposed the UNESCO 2030 educational document, stating that the Islamic Republic will not "submit" to this document and has described UNESCO as an organization that is "certainly under the influence of world powers." He criticized the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution for what he called "not monitoring" the decision to implement this document in Iran, adding, "The essence of the work is wrong. That we go and sign a document and then quietly implement it; no, absolutely not allowed; we have announced it." Critics of this document have serious issues with matters such as "equality of men and women in education" and the entry of "secular thoughts" into Iran's educational system.