Iranian lawmaker Behrouz Mohebi pointed to the 30 to 40 percent rate of student dropouts in Iran and showed his concern about the consequences for the country.
In his opinion one of the reasons for such a phenomenon is ‘the lack of proper infrastructure for using software and internet space for virtual education’ in many cities which forces the students to drop out. (ILNA, April 2, 2021)
The Arman state-run daily pointed to one of the societies’ concerns over ‘the situation of those students’ who are forced, ‘because of the lack of a smartphone or tablet are forced to dropout,’ and spoke ‘about the uncertain educational fate of 6 million students.” (State-run daily Arman, April 3, 2021)
In the Khorasan Razavi province, there are more than 40,000 student dropouts which is indicating a 300 percent increase in students leaving school in this province, while independent watchers are seeing this number much higher than this in this province and of course in the country.
But this situation is not specialized just to the last year and because of the coronavirus outbreak. Many students due to extreme poverty quit their school and are working on the streets as vendors to provide a livelihood for their families, endangered by social hazards and addiction.
Javad Hosseini, Deputy Minister of Education, said that 5 million of the students who drop out are not benefiting from smart devices for their education.
And the state-run daily Mouj which quoted this expression added that this statistic is more than just a news announcement, but a social catastrophe.
This is while in any country, children are the creators of the future of the country, and they must grow in a proper educational system and bear the burden of responsibility, guidance, and growth of the country.
But with the conditions mentioned above, children and students in Iran are far from this goal, because the educational system in Iran is burning out the country’s talents.
And children who are going to school also have to learn in miserable conditions. Difficult living and educational conditions will force them in the future to drop out of school, willingly or unwillingly, joining the working children and street children. The catastrophic situation of the classrooms and schools is further exacerbating this situation.
Eskandar Momeni, Secretary General of the Anti-Drug Headquarters, said: “A careful survey was conducted in the community and the result was that 90 percent of students who drop out the school, they turn to one of the social harms such as addiction. (State-run daily Khabar Fori, January 5, 2021)
Another issue that accelerates the process of children dropping out is frustration about the future after their graduation. Seeing the educated unemployed youth, they prefer to leave school so that they may be able to find work. But because there is no employment for them, they are trapped in various social harms.
What is happening to the children of Iran and their education is not the result of ignorance or negligence, but the result of the government looting and corruption, whose first target are children and adolescents of Iran, dissidents say.
