According to Iran’s state media, last year, at least one million students dropped out of school due to poverty. Meanwhile, according to official sources, the country’s educational system lacks at least 300,000 teachers. Instead of addressing these problems, Iranian authorities have introduced the “Amin” plan. But what is this plan?
According to Reza Morad Sarahi, the acting Minister of Education, the government of Ebrahim Raisi has no plan to recruit new teachers but instead wants to hire 50,000 clerics or “educational coaches.”
The regime’s Minister of Education was recently booted amid rising protests by Iranian teachers who continued holding rallies, demanding higher salaries, and protesting the state’s refusal to implement the ranking system that was supposed to compensate educational staff according to merit and experience while adjusting to the state’s inflation rate. The recent wave of chemical attacks in schools, particularly the all-girl schools, was another major factor for discontent.
Based on the ranking bill, teachers must undergo a classification process considering five criteria: “general qualification, profession, expertise, experience, and competitiveness.” The levels attained through this process will then determine the corresponding salary for each teacher.
Yet, this plan has never been realized, and the chemical attacks persist by the regime’s operatives against schoolchildren. Instead, authorities want to increase their oppressive methods by sending state-affiliated clerics to schools in the so-called “Amin Plan.”
“Our ministry will zealously try to implement the Amin plan, to have our beloved clerics in the schools again,” Morad Sarahi said on May 13. “The educational activities are our main goal. We are facing a shortage of 50,000 educational coaches. This year, 11,000 people will be employed for this purpose, but it is still not enough,” he added, while blatantly rejecting that the country lacks at least 300,000 teachers.
Following the anti-monarchial revolution in 1979, the clerical establishment conducted a deceptive strategy by dispatching agents and oppressive elements to schools, masquerading as “educational coaches.” Their sinister objective was to identify dissidents, imprison them, and manipulate students through indoctrination, preparing them for deployment to war fronts.
On January 5, 1989, the Ministry of Education of the regime shockingly declared that during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), 440,000 students were deployed to the front lines. These students were tragically exploited as cannon fodder, forced to sweep minefields.
Since September 2022, Iranian students, particularly girls, have demonstrated immense courage and played a pivotal role in the nationwide uprising, boldly confronting the oppressive forces of the regime. As a result, Iranian authorities resorted to chemical attacks and now want to deploy their agents, seeking revenge against these resilient students.
Besides their tasks to control schools, Iranian authorities aim to plunder Iranians further. According to the state-run Tasnim News Agency on May 17, “the tuition of so-called for-profit middle schools is nearly 600 million rials or around one thousand dollars, and the tuition of elementary schools is between 220 and 530 million rials, roughly $900.”
These for-profit schools are predominantly under the control of affiliates of the regime, who profit immensely from them. Ironically, the regime’s constitution states that education should be fair, free, and accessible to all. However, with schools experiencing a shortage of teachers and lacking basic necessities such as boards, and in rural areas, even proper buildings, it becomes nearly impossible for Iranian children to access free education. Furthermore, it is important to highlight that government-run schools, which are supposed to be free, often impose various fees on students’ families under different pretexts.
Despite taking money from students’ parents, officials refuse to pay teachers’ salaries or adjust their payments with the soaring inflation.
These measures not only turn education into an unattainable dream for many Iranians and contribute to a rise in school dropouts but also exacerbate the country’s brain drain.
According to the Stanford Iran 2040 Project, an academic platform focused on studying Iran’s development, a report released in April 2020 revealed significant growth in the population of Iranian-born emigrants. Prior to the 1979 revolution, this population stood at approximately half a million individuals, but by 2019, it had soared to 3.1 million. The United States, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom emerged as the most popular destinations for Iranian emigrants.
Iran’s educational system, plagued by corruption, mismanagement, and incompetence under the clerical regime, is a major source of concern. It is no surprise that Iranians from diverse backgrounds united in their protests, consistently calling for regime change.
