Which Political Figures Own the Most Expensive Schools in Tehran?

The newspaper 'Farhikhtegan' reported that the annual tuition fees for the 'Hanan' school associated with Mohammad Khatami and the 'Imam Sadiq' school linked to Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi-Kani are 37 and 25 million tomans, respectively. In its issue on Tuesday, October 3rd, the newspaper published a report titled 'Analysis of the Most Expensive Schools in Tehran' aimed at explaining 'the consensus of political groups to charge astronomical tuition fees from students.' The report mentions 18 schools in Tehran that are associated with or owned by well-known conservative and reformist political figures and charge millions in tuition fees. Non-governmental schools 'Ehsan, Alavi, Roozbeh, Nikan' linked to Ali-Asghar Karbasian (Hojjatieh Society) are among those mentioned, with an annual tuition of 30 million tomans. The non-governmental 'Motahari' school, associated with Ayatollah Mohammad Imami Kashani, the temporary Friday prayer leader of Tehran, has an annual tuition of about 27 million tomans. The list also includes a school named 'Kamal' linked to the 'Freedom Movement' of Iran, with an annual tuition of 27 million tomans. The report states that the annual tuition for the non-governmental 'Tazkiyeh' school, associated with the 'Traditional Right' faction, is also 27 million tomans. Non-governmental schools 'Roshangar,' 'Salam and Nuclear Energy,' and 'Farhang,' associated with Mohsen Hashemi, Saad Hajarian, and Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, have annual tuitions of 26, 25, and 25 million tomans, respectively. The list includes Elias Ghalibaf, son of Mohammad-Baqer Ghalibaf, whose non-governmental 'Mehr Hashtam' school is reported to have an annual tuition of 22 million tomans. The non-governmental 'Motalefeh' school associated with Yahya Al-Asghari is also mentioned, with an annual tuition of about 22 million tomans. 'Farhikhtegan' explained that all these schools lack financial transparency, have become 'brands,' and their financial statistics are 'not transparent,' with 'no will' for clarification regarding these schools. The report states that some of these schools have received 'governmental facilities, special rents, or subsidies' under the claim of 'training cadres for the country.' The publication of this report has received various reactions on social media, with some questioning the figures reported by the newspaper on Twitter. Mohammad Hossein Farhadian, editor of 'Iranian Student News Agency,' tweeted, 'Listing these schools is interesting, but the point is that regarding Salam schools, Mr. Saad Hajarian has passed away, and Mr. Fazel Sanqari is now the head.' Others have criticized the report, while Ali Khazarian, deputy editor of 'Farhikhtegan,' announced that 'such reports will continue.' Sadegh Hosseini, one of those defending the performance of these schools, wrote, 'Which institution has forced parents to enroll their children in these schools? If it is expensive, don't enroll them.' Ali Moradkhani also tweeted in support of the report, 'A big thank you to my dear friends at 'Farhikhtegan' for daring to tackle a dangerous subject that has raised many voices.' Milad Nazemi also expressed support for the report, stating, 'Kudos to Farhikhtegan for its report on non-governmental schools, but I just remembered that Farhikhtegan is under the University of Azad, and the university itself symbolizes many things.' Alongside the praises and criticisms of this report, some have pointed out schools in this list for which 'Farhikhtegan' refrained from disclosing the names of their owners. 'Hatef' and 'Solha' are two schools mentioned that the newspaper wrote are linked to 'a famous scholar' and 'a well-known political figure,' with annual tuitions of 23 and 25 million tomans, respectively. Mohammad Saleh Miftah also tweeted about this issue, stating that revealing these two names 'required more courage? Who are they anyway?' Other Twitter users have raised similar questions, demanding the identification of the owners of the schools not named in this report. These schools are referred to as the most expensive non-governmental schools in Tehran, significantly deviating from the approved rates by the Ministry of Education for the 2018-2019 academic year. According to a decree from this ministry, the minimum tuition for primary education in 2017 was 2 million 70 thousand tomans, which increased to 2 million 653 thousand tomans for the new academic year. The minimum tuition for the first secondary cycle was 3 million 200 thousand tomans last year, which rose to 3 million 628 thousand tomans this year. The minimum tuition for the second secondary cycle was 3 million 795 thousand tomans, which has reached 4 million 182 thousand tomans this year. The maximum approved tuition for the current academic year for non-governmental schools in Tehran is set at 7 million 140 thousand tomans for primary education, 8 million 267 thousand tomans for the first secondary cycle, and 10 million 134 thousand tomans for the second secondary cycle.