Education Minister: The Enemy Has Come to Our Doorstep

Mohammad Bathaei is asking protesting teachers to express their demands “more wisely” because the “country is at war.” During teachers’ protest rallies, a number of people were arrested; according to the education minister, all but two have been released.

The education minister of the twelfth government held a press conference on the occasion of Teacher’s Week, noting the “credit and financial problems” of the ministry while emphasizing that the academic year coming to an end has been “a productive year” for the country’s education system despite these problems.

According to ISNA news agency, Mohammad Bathaei on Saturday, Ordibehesht 15, while emphasizing the need to reform the “Fundamental Transformation Document of Education,” said: “In the first section, which is transformation in the text and content of education, the work is very difficult because what our children were being taught is supposed to undergo certain changes. The transformation shifts are mentioned in the national curriculum document.”

Iran’s education system has suffered from budget shortages and mismanagement for years; thousands of schools in need of repair or demolition and reconstruction, lack of welfare facilities, and delayed teacher and retiree salaries are among the issues in this sector that have repeatedly led to teachers’ protest movements.

The education minister says that with the occurrence of floods in the first weeks of this year, 1,500 schools were damaged and added to this sector’s problems. He added that slightly more than 200 schools in flood-affected areas need to be demolished and rebuilt, while the remaining schools need to be repaired.

Demands of Protesting Teachers

Bathaei’s press conference was held three days after the nationwide protest rally of educators on Teacher’s Day. Protesting teachers, at the call of the “Coordination Council of Iranian Educators’ Trade Unions,” gathered in front of education department offices in various provinces and cities and sought attention to their conditions.

ILNA news agency reported the most important demands of educators as “improving the standard of living for active and retired teachers, abolishing privatization and providing free quality education to all students, implementing salary equalization for retirees, payment of education commitments by the government, and freedom of unionization.”

Based on images and videos published on social media, comprehensive and effective insurance, school safety, eliminating discrimination in the education structure, and freeing teachers and trade union activists arrested in previous protest movements were among the other demands of the protesters.

According to reports, educators’ protest rallies in some cities turned violent with the involvement of security forces, and a number of protesters were arrested.

Failed Attempt to Take Protests to the Streets

The education minister says that “appropriate space” had been provided for educators to express their protests and grievances, but the protesters did not use it.

He commented on attempts to prevent trade union protests from taking to the streets: “When they gather in the streets, dozens of troublemakers who don’t care about teachers’ issues stand alongside teachers and make statements that are not teachers’ concerns at all and are not in line with the country’s interests.”

According to ISNA, Mohammad Bathaei addressed teachers saying: “Dear colleagues, the country’s conditions are at war, and the enemy has come to our doorstep, and in such tense circumstances, we must express our problems and demands more wisely.”

The education minister told reporters that Thursday, when protesting teachers demonstrated, he was informed that in some cities those who had been arrested were released, but in one city two people are still in custody. While promising to follow up on the release of these two detainees, he added: “But I ask my colleagues to do this with greater insight and not allow wrongdoers to take advantage.”

History of Protests Before Sanction Escalation

The “war conditions” that this cabinet member and other senior officials of the Islamic Republic refer to is the situation Iran has faced since the escalation of American sanctions.

Nevertheless, many of the problems that have driven teachers to protest, such as teacher shortages and inadequate educational space, insufficient equipment, delayed salaries, and failure to address the situation and demands of retirees, have existed for years before the return of American sanctions.

The education minister also acknowledges many of these problems and, among other things, says: “I know a teacher cannot teach in a classroom with 40 students in a double-shift school, and perform related tasks in the classroom, and this is not possible.”

He also, while acknowledging the shortage of human resources in education, said that the ministry is negotiating to “obtain 55,000 recruitment permits,” “but we don’t know how many permits we will reach an agreement on.”

Source: DW