Moein al-Din Saeedi, the member of regime’s Majlis (parliament), pointed out to the problem of “student displacement” as one of the main reasons for the high rate of “educational dropout” among students in Sistan and Baluchestan (southeast Iran), stating that “less than approximately 40 out of every 100 students in this province succeed in obtaining a diploma.”
On December 1, Moein al-Din Saeedi told the regime’s ILNA news agency, “About ten percent of the students who drop out of school in the country are in Sistan and Baluchestan province, and it mostly affects girls.”
According to this Majlis member, “In fact, less than approximately 40 out of every 100 students in Sistan and Baluchestan succeed in obtaining a diploma.”
Saeedi further mentioned the problem of “student displacement” as one of the main reasons for the high rate of educational dropout in this province.
In the past few days, a video of student being transported with a trailer was circulated on social media, which some sources said was related to the students of Jakigor Middle School in Rask County, located in Sistan and Baluchestan.
This is not the first time that images of students being transported in dangerous conditions, especially with mini trucks and trucks, have been shared on social media.
In late November, reports emerged of a minibus carrying Baluch students overturning and catching fire in Qasr-e Qand County, resulting in the injury of some of the children.
Student displacement in Sistan and Baluchestan continues to occur despite the Director-General of Education in this province announcing on August 15 the allocation of 170 billion rials (approximately $336,000) to the “Central Village” plan and a 50 percent increase in funding for this plan by the Ministry of Education in the new academic year.
The “Central Village” plan started several years ago with the aim of relocating students from scattered villages to a central village with a school in some provinces. However, there have been criticisms of the successful implementation of this plan, including Moein al-Din Saeedi stating that “funds for this rural plan are sometimes not provided.”
Minibus carrying Baluch students overturned and caught fire in Qasr-e Qand County
Occasionally, reports are published about the problems and dangers faced by students in commuting to deprived areas. Ham-Mihan newspaper published a report in May about the problems of student transportation in the villages of Sistan and Baluchestan, stating, “Dirt and gravel roads are a threat to the lives of students. Some of them fall off the minitrucks on these routes, get soaked in rivers up to their necks, have encountered attacks by wild dogs and water snakes, Gando (the only crocodile native to Iran) and if they don’t find transportation, they ride on motorcycles and fuel carriers on the roadside and sit among drums of several hundred liters of gasoline.”
According to a report by the Majlis Research Center in the 2021-2022 academic year, more than 911,000 students in Iran dropped out of education. Sistan and Baluchestan province has had the worst situation in terms of “educational dropout” and “school dropouts” indicators.
According to this report, the dropout rate of students in the past academic year has increased by more than 17 percent compared to the 2015-2016 academic year, and reasons for this include “class and gender discrimination,” “cultural poverty,” and “limitations and deprivation.”
