Alireza Monadi Sefidan, Chairman of the Education and Research Commission of the regime’s Majlis (parliament), announced a shortage of 70,000 to 80,000 teachers in the new academic year, stating that the retirement of a large number of teachers will create “huge gaps” in the country’s education system.
He emphasized the need to send a letter to the new president to address the current situation and provide solutions, suggesting that increasing the amount of part-time teaching pay to motivate current teachers is a solution to this problem. He also mentioned that there are about 24,000 contractual teachers who need to be given permanent positions.
While the Chairman of the Education and Research Commission of the regime’s Majlis (parliament) mentioned a teacher shortage in the range of 70,000 to 80,000, Iranian media have reported this shortage as up to 176,000 teachers.
The Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, also addressed this issue, stating that the education system is facing a shortage of 176,000 teachers as the school year begins in late September, and the solutions proposed by the parliament are not feasible. Additionally, the new government does not have the opportunity to take fundamental action to resolve this crisis.
According to Tasnim, classes without teachers and classes with untrained teachers lacking basic knowledge and skills are among the issues and problems of ordinary public schools in recent years and one of the reasons for their declining quality.
Tasnim News Agency, in response to Monadi’s letter to the new government, wrote that “the very late letter from the Education Commission, assuming it is effective, is not even a remedy after death.”
This news agency criticized linking the teacher shortage to teacher retirements, attributing any shortages in this area to managerial negligence.
According to reports, the head of the Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly announced on June 30 that the government owes over 700 trillion rials to educators and stated that there is a shortage of 176,000 teachers for the new academic year.
Babak Negahdari emphasized that it is predicted that about 72,000 teachers will retire by October 2024, making it more difficult for the Ministry of Education to provide sufficient manpower.
Negahdari attributed the human resources crisis in the Ministry of Education to the neglect of developing the capacities of Farhangian University, the weakening and dissolution of teacher training centers, and the set of employment determination laws for teachers from 2009 to 2021.
Statements from parliamentary representatives and media reactions indicate that in the education system under the Iranian regime, planning has no place, and the lack of an educational and scientific development outlook has led to the current problems and issues in the education sector.
One of these issues is the teacher shortage in schools, which was at its highest historical level last academic year.
In this context, on November 2, 2023, Mohammad Vahidi, a member of the Education Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, announced that 68,000 teachers had left the Iranian education system at the beginning of the school year and that there were 100,000 classes without teachers.
Now, ten months after the peak of the crisis last academic year and the promises of the Minister of Education, not only have the problems not been resolved, but with the retirement of nearly 72,000 teachers, the challenge of providing human resources in education will be greater than before.
This is while currently employed and contractual teachers are also facing delayed wages and the suppression of their legal demands.
The shortage of teachers and the promises of Iranian regime officials to “provide teachers” for teacherless classes have gripped Iran’s education system and reached its highest historical level. It seems that even if human resources are recruited, the number of applicants will not meet the needs.
This lack of willingness to work in the education system, aside from economic issues and delayed payment of wages, is rooted in the suppression of the demands of educators and teachers, who in recent years have repeatedly held protest rallies to achieve their professional and livelihood demands and criticized the policies governing education in the country.
According to this report, the government’s pressure on teachers’ union activists has intensified in recent years, especially after the nationwide protests of 2022, and some of them have been arrested or faced sentences such as forced retirement, dismissal, suspension, and confiscation of property.
