Nader Karimi Beiranvand, Director General of Secondary Education at the Ministry of Education, stated that the “teacher shortage crisis” is one of the most serious challenges facing the education system and has a direct impact on the quality of education across the country.
According to the state-run ISNA news agency, Karimi said, “This issue is no longer limited to underprivileged areas, and even provinces such as Tehran are experiencing a severe teacher shortage.”
He noted that despite the hiring of new teachers in the past two years, the rising number of secondary school students has made the shortage even more noticeable, and addressing it remains one of the main challenges for the education system.
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Karimi highlighted the impact of this crisis on students’ academic performance, explaining that in some schools, students do not have adequate access to qualified teachers, which has negatively affected their academic achievements.
He emphasized that the average final exam scores are “not at a desirable level,” and that educational issues, teacher shortages, and a lack of sufficient resources in some schools are “key factors contributing to academic decline.”
He also addressed the issue of school dropouts, stating that some students, due to not completing elementary or middle school, are unable to enter “the theoretical secondary education track,” which “ultimately leads to their exit from the education system.”
Another major challenge is educational inequality in public schools. Karimi stressed that some of these schools “lack the necessary managerial support and sufficient funding to improve their educational standards,” leading to a “quality gap between public and private schools.”
“Schools in underprivileged and suburban areas” continue to suffer from a “lack of resources and personnel.” According to Karimi Beiranvand, many of these schools are in urgent need of attention, yet they remain a “lower priority compared to other educational issues.”
The “educational space crisis” has also become evident in the capital. Previously, the state-run Tasnim news agency reported that education officials had emphasized the need for 695 schools with 15 classrooms each in the counties of Tehran province to prevent overcrowding in classrooms.
In a November 2024 report, Tasnim highlighted this issue, stating that some classrooms in Tehran accommodate 40 to 50 students, which has led to a decline in the quality of education.
The lack of financial resources for projects such as school safety improvements, school construction in underprivileged areas, and providing basic necessities such as drinking water and sanitation in many regions of Iran comes at a time when billions of dollars are annually spent by various Iranian regime institutions—from ministries to municipalities and local agencies—on ideological government objectives or financing terrorism.
