Student Density in Tehran Classrooms Reaches 48; School Crisis

The school shortage crisis in Tehran, a consequence of unregulated urban development, has led to student density in some classrooms exceeding 48 students. The government blames "housing projects" for this issue. According to educational officials, to achieve the national standard of 35 students per classroom, 13,000 new classrooms need to be built in Tehran. A report from the state-run news agency Tasnim emphasizes that 695 15-classroom schools are needed in the districts of Tehran province to prevent excessive classroom density. These officials state that despite efforts to increase the average educational space from 17.5 square meters in 2016 to 28.5 square meters, this figure still falls short of the national standard of 8 square meters per student. According to school development experts, the educational space per student in Tehran is even lower, reaching 16.5 square meters, indicating an urgent need for new school construction. Urban development and population density in housing complexes have exacerbated the problems caused by the school shortage in peripheral areas and new cities like Pardis, Pakdasht, and Islamshahr, especially in the Mehr Housing and National Housing projects. Some classrooms in these areas are held with 40 to 50 students, leading to a decline in educational quality. One resident of Pardis, referring to her child's 48-student class, states: "In these conditions, students cannot learn the curriculum properly. Additionally, private schools are not accessible due to high tuition fees." According to the report, Fatemeh Mohajerani, a spokesperson for the government, announced that in many Mehr and National Housing projects, mandatory laws for school construction have been ignored. This official adds that "this shortage is more pronounced in areas managed by the General Directorate of Roads and Urban Development, including the Imam Reza site in Pakdasht and the Vavan site in Islamshahr." Furthermore, Abbas Zareh, the director of school renovation in Tehran province, points to the lack of schools in some Mehr Housing sites like Imam Reza in Pakdasht and Vavan in Islamshahr, stating: "In projects overseen by the General Directorate of Roads and Urban Development, we face the problem of schools not being built." Educational experts warn that implementing construction projects without planning for educational infrastructure will create more serious problems in the future. Addressing the shortage of educational space is one of the demands raised by teacher union activists, who have repeatedly warned about the lack of schools and the excessive density of students in various regions of the country during protests. In the latest statement from educators, over a thousand teachers in Kurdistan province wrote in a letter that "Iran's education system is facing numerous problems, including declining educational quality, academic failure, dropout of hundreds of thousands of students, teacher and educational space shortages, stratification and privatization of education, and job dissatisfaction among teachers."