On April 7, the regime-affiliated newspaper Etemad published a report exposing the state of education in Iran. More than 70% of Iranian students lack adequate literacy skills compared to global standards. This figure is an alarming warning for Iran’s future.
Iran at the Bottom of Global Rankings
The Etemad report cites the results of the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study), which assess student performance worldwide every four to five years. Iran ranks among the lowest-performing countries in these assessments. In the 2023 TIMSS and 2021 PIRLS, four out of every ten Iranian students failed to meet the minimum learning standards in reading, math, and science, and more than 70% performed below the global average. These statistics reflect a focus on quantitative expansion of education without concern for quality—a policy that has led to widespread learning poverty and educational backwardness.
The report highlights the widespread nature of educational poverty. The poor quality of education in public schools, lack of resources, and neglect of infrastructure have deprived students of their most basic rights.
Sistan and Baluchestan: A Symbol of Educational Deprivation
In some provinces, the situation goes beyond disaster. In Sistan and Baluchestan, 58.4% of the population under the age of 24 do not hold a high school diploma. While elementary school enrollment exceeds 95%, actual attendance drops to 90.1% in lower secondary and just 80% in upper secondary. Following Sistan and Baluchestan, the provinces of West Azerbaijan (41%) and Golestan (38%) rank next in this crisis. These figures show that as students’ progress to higher levels of education, poverty and deprivation increasingly prevent them from continuing their studies.
According to the Ministry of Education yearbook, in the 2020–2021 academic year, over 980,000 students in primary, lower, and upper secondary education dropped out, and another 270,000 officially withdrew. The statistics for the 2019–2020 year were similarly grim. This widespread dropout rate is a direct result of economic poverty and governmental neglect.
The chart of average final exam scores (scored between 1 and 20) from June 2024 shows that Sistan and Baluchestan (7.59), Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad (8.59), and Khuzestan (9.04) had the lowest performance among Iran’s provinces. These figures not only reflect the failure of the education system but also mirror regional discrimination and systemic injustice rooted in overarching regime policies.
A Regime That Condemned People to Poverty and Ignorance
This report reveals only a glimpse of the bitter reality of Iran’s education system—a system that, under the shadow of an incompetent and unrepresentative regime, has condemned students to learning poverty and deprivation. When more than 70% of students lag behind global standards and hundreds of thousands drop out of school, this disaster can no longer be blamed on external factors.
The Next Generation at the Edge of a Cliff
The current state of education in Iran is a dire warning for the next generation, which, under the devastating policies of Khamenei’s regime, is being deprived not only of knowledge and skills but also trapped in a never-ending cycle of poverty and backwardness.
If this situation persists, the educational and social divide will deepen further, and millions of today’s children and adolescents will grow into illiterate adults, incapable of facing global challenges—a catastrophe that will impact not only Iran but the entire region.
