Recruitment of 20,000 'Caretakers' for Schools; Status Change for Service Teachers; Perhaps Another Time

The Deputy Minister of Education announced the issuance of a permit to recruit 20,000 'caretakers' and stated, 'Currently, there is no news about the status change for service teachers.' Qasem Ahmadi Lashaki described the method of recruitment and employment of 'caretakers' as 'unknown' and emphasized that negotiations between the Ministry of Education and the country's employment organization have not yet yielded a clear outcome regarding the status of service teachers. He considered the resolution of service teachers' status to be 'conditional' on cooperation with the employment organization and the budget planning organization. These remarks come as a member of the Education Commission in Parliament announced that there are 18,000 service teachers in limbo. Mohammad Wahidi said on Friday, November 17, that 'about 18,000 teachers have entered classrooms without teachers and have no salary or insurance.' Wahidi pointed out that the uncertainty surrounding service teachers is a major problem and crisis, noting that teachers recruited through the employment exam entered classrooms without undergoing teacher training at the Teacher Training University. This statement comes despite regulations that require every recruited teacher to complete a six-month or one-year teacher training course before entering schools. The problems of 'service teachers' are not limited to uncertainty, as Iranian media reported on November 17 that a new crisis has emerged in education, announcing that several thousand teachers have not received any salary since the beginning of the school year. The issue of unpaid salaries for this group of teachers was covered by the 'Tasnim' news agency, which is affiliated with security institutions and is one of the main media supporters of the government, emphasizing that service teachers of the Ministry of Education have confirmed this news. However, the news agency quoted the Deputy Planning Officer of the Ministry in response to this incident, stating, 'The salaries of this group of teachers are not monthly and are based on our performance, meaning that first, funding must be allocated by the budget planning organization to the Ministry of Education, and then it will be made available to companies and teachers!' According to 'Tasnim' news agency, Ali Farhadi explained the delay in salary payments for teachers by saying, 'We have contracts with intermediary companies, and money is deposited for them and paid to teachers by these companies.' The educational system in Iran has faced many challenges in recent months, while educators have been pursuing their professional demands for years and have amplified their voices through protests in recent years. Nevertheless, Islamic Republic officials, instead of addressing the economic issues and professional demands of teachers, are trying to enrich the ideological foundations of the educational system by changing the content of textbooks and employing religious forces in collaboration with seminaries. These foundations have, in practice, nurtured new generations over the past four decades who have chosen their lifestyles and beliefs in a way that contradicts the impositions of the Islamic Republic. This issue continues to occupy Islamic Republic officials after four decades, as they seek to make the educational system 'more Islamic,' with the latest instance being the Minister of Education announcing the 'gender segregation' of textbook content. The call to prayer and the compulsion of students to pray, as well as the obligation to send recordings of prayer at home, have also been other controversial programs of the Ministry of Education in recent months. Meanwhile, the problem of teacher shortages and classrooms that remain without teachers has yet to be resolved. An education official stated, 'We have been instructed' to pay attention to 'gender identity' in the curriculum. Air pollution has become a new challenge for education, with 40% of study time lost due to weather conditions. The Minister of Education of the Islamic Republic announced the gender segregation of textbooks. The closure of private schools in Zahedan due to management by Sunni clerics.