Iran's Minister of Education Proposes Teaching Russian as a Second Language

The Iranian Minister of Education announced during his visit to Moscow the government's plan to 'break the monopoly' of English language education in schools and called for the teaching of Russian and Persian in the schools of both countries as a second language. According to the IRNA news agency, Mohammad Bat'haei stated on Thursday during a meeting with Vyacheslav Nikonov, Chairman of the Education and Science Committee of the Russian State Duma, that 'the Iranian government intends to break the monopoly of English as a second language and expand the teaching of other languages, especially Russian, in Iran.' Mr. Bat'haei, who traveled to Moscow, also mentioned that he discussed this issue with the Russian Minister of Education. On his Twitter account, he wrote that the teaching of Russian in Iran is conditional on the teaching of Persian in Russia, and the issue of teaching Russian and Persian in the schools of both countries is to be pursued in a memorandum of understanding. He added, 'We are striving to diversify foreign language education in schools, and according to the law, conditions for teaching French, German, Russian, and Spanish alongside English will be provided.' The leader of the Islamic Republic criticized the promotion of the English language in the country two years ago. Ayatollah Khamenei stated, 'Unfortunately, in some cases, instead of promoting Persian, English is promoted, and it has now reached a point where English language education has extended to kindergartens.' A day after these remarks, Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, referred to English as the 'language of science' while asking the Ministry of Education to assess the status of foreign language education in schools in terms of 'quantity and quality' and report it to the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council. In contrast, Sadegh Larijani, the head of the Iranian judiciary, criticized these remarks, stating that foreign language education 'sometimes takes on the face of influence.' Previously, criticisms had also been raised regarding the method of teaching English in Iranian schools. For instance, the Asr Iran website described the English language education system in Iranian schools as 'backward and ineffective,' stating that those who study this language in Iranian schools 'can neither speak, write, read in English, nor even watch an English film and understand it.'