A Senior Official in Raisi’s Administration: The Ministry of Education Received Over 3,000 Billion Tomans in Donations from Philanthropists This Year

While the education sector’s share of the country’s general budget in the 1401 bill is only 8.5%, the Deputy Minister of Education in Ibrahim Raisi’s administration says the ministry received “3,000 billion tomans” in donations from philanthropists this year.

According to a Tasnim News Agency report on Thursday, Dey 30, Mehralah Dorokhshani-Mehr, Deputy Minister of Education, said: “This year, the government received over 3,000 billion tomans in donations from philanthropists, and philanthropists participated with 2,350 billion tomans in school construction.”

He named “Isfahan, Razavi Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchestan, and Khuzestan” as provinces distinguished in philanthropists’ participation in school construction and emphasized that 80% of schools in Kashan are “philanthropic schools.”

One of the schools built by philanthropists was constructed by the parents of Alvand Sadeghi, one of the victims of the Ukrainian commercial aircraft downing as a result of the missile attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in memory of their son and in his name in Sistan and Baluchestan Province.

According to Dorokhshani-Mehr, there are 20,000 “incomplete” classrooms in Iran, and the Ministry of Education wants to complete “14,700” classrooms in the current year and hand them over to the provincial education departments.

Based on estimates, in the field of state education in Iran, there are 13 million students with permanent and contractual staff.

The small share of education in the country’s general budget in the 1401 bill has created new concerns, and some experts say education will become “poorer.”

The allocation of 8.5% of the country’s general budget for education in the next year’s budget bill comes while, according to Mohammad Reza Niknejad, an education expert, based on international standards that “were also emphasized in the fundamental transformation document,” education’s share of the general budget should be “around 20%.”

Trade News, by examining the budget increase rates of some ministries, reported that the Ministry of Communications had the highest budget increase with 134%, while this increase in education is only 14%.

Severe financial resource shortage in education comes as the ministry previously announced that the risk-taking behavior among students has increased tenfold.

Also, student suicides resulting from poverty in Iran have been repeatedly reported in recent years by news sources and human rights organizations.

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, on Azar 1, acknowledging that “we have dealt a blow to education over the past two decades,” said that despite the planned transformation document, education has fallen a decade behind and “we officials must be accountable for it.”

On the other hand, teachers across Iran have been extensively protesting for months against deteriorating livelihood conditions and are demanding the passage and full implementation of the teacher ranking bill. A bill that, in their view, parliament had “hastily assembled,” yet the Guardian Council returned it, citing reasons most prominently being the “financial burden.”

Source: Voice of America