Ibrahim Sahrakhiz: In Iran We Have a Commodified Approach to Education/Interview by Ali Kalaei
It is certain that “education does not have the necessary status and respect, and it is not the first concern in the country. If it were not so, they would have a thousand excuses.” He himself was once the deputy minister of secondary education in the Ministry of Education during the second term of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration.
Coronavirus and the state of education in the country is an issue that has concerned those devoted to education in Iran. The situation of the Shad network, the internet situation in the country, and the history of Iran’s educational system are not hidden from anyone. With this issue and with the intention of examining the current state of virtual education in the country, we went to Ibrahim Sahrakhiz, former deputy minister of education and education expert, and raised questions with him. By analyzing the condition of the education network in the country and the Shad network, he reports the lack of education for students, teachers, and parents regarding the virtual space, and while analyzing virtual education in Iran and the Shad network, he says that three groups of students, teachers, and parents have not received proper education in the field of virtual space. He continues: “We did not take virtual education and E-learning seriously, and even ridiculed it.”
However, one of the points raised in this conversation was the issue of the necessity of free education in Iran. In this regard, Sahrakhiz also raised concerns, saying that “we had a commodified approach to education and development” and reported that “our minister owns a school himself. We are facing a conflict of interest here.”
He also added, “All ministers of education thought that education should be run cheaply. Cheap education means not having a virtual network. It means not having a strong and capable teacher. It means not having equipped schools and technical colleges. It means buying educational services for teachers who are hired and we give them a worker’s minimum wage.”
The deputy minister of secondary education in Ahmadinejad’s second term also, noting that “the Shad network is a choice between bad and worse,” spoke about its consequences: “The Shad network will certainly cause severe educational decline and loss. We will have to wait for years for this. The educational gap will lead to great injustice, the results of which we will see in university entrance exams and other places and in student illiteracy.”
In examining this network at the end, he added: “Of course, I see corruption. The person in charge of this network himself runs distance education centers. He was one of the founders of distance education centers in Iran and has taken control of this network.”
Sahrakhiz also, by raising the discussion of the hidden curriculum and its absence in virtual education and the Shad network, addresses the influence of teachers, administrative staff, and even the school principal on students, and says that in this field, “our greatest concern now is first grade. In first grade, the student develops a lasting emotional relationship with the teacher.” An emotional relationship that is no longer achieved when education becomes virtual.
Ibrahim Sahrakhiz finally raised a white flag and said: “In Iran, we don’t have a problem with laws. We have documents galore. Some people are document traders. Groups that go around and talk about documents from province to province and take their money. But nothing happens in implementation. We want implementation. Everyone knows what happens in Finland or Japan and what they do. The question is what are you doing in Iran? What has happened in the sphere of our schools?”
Below, you can read the full interview of “White Line” monthly with Ibrahim Sahrakhiz, former deputy minister of education and education expert:
What is your assessment of the current state of virtual education during the corona period in Iran? In your opinion, what damages has the current situation caused to our educational system?
Education has not yet taken virtual education seriously. Media literacy among students, teachers, and parents is low. Whether we want it or not, parents are a component of participation in the learning and teaching process of students and can be influential. They can provide a suitable environment for teaching and learning. They can create diversity in learning environments and opportunities for better experiences for students. That is, we shouldn’t say that if our students and teachers are capable, then we’ve finished the job and fulfilled our mission. No. We shouldn’t overlook that part either. That is, we have three groups: students, teachers, and parents. I believe that despite the high internet penetration rate in Iran and many having access to smartphones or tablets and other hardware facilities, a significant portion of our teachers, parents, and students still lack the ability to work with them. Let alone that in some places the infrastructure is not even in place. I saw a clip where in Nahavand, students traverse dangerous roads to access the internet to reach the other side of the mountain or the village side where the signal works and they can use free internet. That means we still haven’t been able to provide the infrastructure.
In the document for the transformation of fundamental education by the Ministry of Education, it is stated that there should be intelligent use of modern technologies. Technologies in the field of communications and virtual networks also have their place. If we want learning to become more consolidated or, as psychologists say, to become meaningful learning and push students to think, and what they learn remains forever in the depths of the student’s being, alongside the book and even in situations where school is open, we need to produce electronic content to make learning attractive. The Research Organization is responsible for this and should demand private sector participation. Let them produce content. We should monitor the media that has worked in this field and give them standards based on the decision of the Supreme Council of Education. No serious action has been taken in this regard. What exists in the market was developed with the view of the entrance exam. That is, all their thought and all their concern is to prepare the student for final exams, entrance exams, or gifted student tests. This did not happen. We did not take virtual education and E-learning seriously, and even ridiculed it. I remember when we were in the ministry and the smart school discussion came up, some said we have so many problems that this gets lost among them. So we should go get tablets and smart phones and then in schools, next to desks and chairs that are outdated, these too would become outdated. It is natural that until recently wooden desks and chairs in schools were depreciated and in the future perhaps in our schools the depreciated assets might be smart boards. Don’t phones get updated today? You and your family use new and latest generation phones. Because a series of software cannot be installed and run on old phones. This is a natural process. This doesn’t deserve ridicule. Now if we have a budget shortage problem, let’s call on people to participate or divide the work into several phases and move forward. We did not take content production seriously. We did not empower teachers. We ignored the necessary infrastructure in villages, pastoral areas, and cities. Some of our non-governmental schools and special schools, like gifted schools, might be in a better situation compared to others, but of course they still fall short of the ideal. The problem is that content was not produced. They just made something flashy and mentioned it in exams like entrance exams. Otherwise, this issue has not seriously entered Iran in the real sense. This issue is still vacant.
You pointed to both the budget issue and the lack of seriousness of the country’s educational body in this field. Where do you think the problem lies? Do we have a legal problem and don’t have a law for it, or do we have a law but the executive body doesn’t do what it should when implementing?
Our work has gone beyond the law. This issue has become a necessity today. Now in the corona situation, a rural student goes through four lines and risks being hit by a truck and getting run over just to get to his lessons. He feels the danger that he has fallen behind others and suffered academic decline. However, education in our country is not the first priority. Officials speak nicely. But the first concern of this country is not education. While if you read books written in the field of education economics and development, some believe that education causes development and development causes accumulation of wealth. Some also say the opposite, that we must first engage in production and capital accumulation, and then bring that capital and spend it on education. I’m not pursuing the theoretical debate. But I want to reach the conclusion that both views have a common aspect. That common aspect is that education produces human capital. Education is what can mobilize social capital to strengthen the system and state. Whenever we say such a thing, officials think that the teacher’s salary should be increased four or five times. Even that is nothing compared to this inflation in salary increases. But no! If you reach the status and dignity of a teacher, which also includes livelihood and priority, in the process of attracting and selecting teachers, you no longer go to teachers as a purchase of educational services. You no longer hire on a contract basis. In a city council, one member whose whole family are hired teachers comes and lobbies with a proposal and says that all these should be hired by the Ministry of Education. I want to say that education does not have the necessary status and respect, and it is not the first concern in the country. If it were not so, they would have a thousand excuses. They say we don’t have a budget. They say in the conditions of corona and today’s economic situation we have so many priorities that education is irrelevant. As I believe, in the last forty years this view in education has been the same.
The next point is serious determination. That executive bodies should demand from the minister a timed roadmap in education. Look, it’s absurd now that every minister who comes to education writes four pages and goes to the day of confidence vote and reads his program. Our representative, if he is wise, would say Mr. Minister, put your program aside! Because the program is clear. You have a transformation document. If there isn’t even a transformation document, the future path is clear. Tell me what you’ve done for media literacy? Tell me what you’ve done for student thinking? What have you done for developing teaching and learning methods? And what do you want to do? If we had a clear operational program as an agreement, the parliament should have demanded it. But there wasn’t such a thing. Eight years of Mr. Rouhani and four years of the previous administration, for twelve years we’ve been saying Sir! Use modern technologies. Use virtual education networks. There is no program and no one wants to do this work. I want to say our problem is not just budget. No one goes to evaluate what steps have been taken in these years. They say they have low budget? I have observed that every year people pay at least thirty percent of education costs. That is, no matter how much the government claims regarding the education budget, for example in 1399 it was about 65 to 66 thousand billion, if we round it, it becomes 70 thousand billion tomans, people pay thirty percent of this money. Whether in villages or cities. It varies and is more or less, but it happens. In our special government schools, they charge large tuitions. Here if there was a program they would say why don’t you direct this thirty percent toward infrastructure? Hardware is needed. Teachers need to be trained. Books and software need to be produced for them. But this was not the will. It was done selectively and arbitrarily. We have always made marginal forces the minister of education.
If I want to summarize. First, education is not our first priority. We didn’t do proper awareness building. The oversight bodies don’t have an operational program and a timed roadmap that says what needs to be done in the short term, medium term, and long term. There is no program to move based on and then hold the government and executive body accountable for it. Such a thing has not existed. Of course, it’s the same in other fields too.
Mr. Sahrakhiz, based on Iran’s constitution, education is free and the state is obligated to provide this free education throughout the country. Forty years have passed since the revolution and the establishment of the system. But now in dealing with virtual education, we don’t have such an issue. As you said, students have to take risks to access the internet. Or students commit suicide due to lack of smartphones or tablets and lack of access to virtual education. What do you think happened that today we face such a situation?
What I mentioned. Education is not our first priority. It’s not the concern of officials. It’s not on the desk of the country’s top leaders. They talk but we see nothing in practice. Every so often they raise teachers’ salaries, which doesn’t even match inflation. That too is due to social pressure. But the cause of these problems is that we had a commodified approach to education. Despite the explicit text of the constitution. Most countries in the world also have almost such a view and say that education is the right of every citizen. In the constitution, this right is explicitly recognized and is never subject to interpretation and commentary. I sometimes watched the discussions of the Guardian Council to approve non-governmental and non-profit schools—I think in the 1370s. I was really amazed at how the gentlemen interpreted and explained this word so clearly and explicitly that opening non-governmental schools has no conflict and people can come and participate.
Our minister himself owns a school. We are facing a conflict of interest. Almost all ministers who once said non-governmental schools are bad, now all defend non-governmental schools. Those who once gave slogans of free education and educational justice, today have taken three or four thousand square meter lands in the best parts of Tehran like Shahrak-e Gharb and made schools of them. These same people sit in our education council and write books and speak and dictate to the minister. The Center for Strategic Research of the Presidency, run by Mr. Hesam al-Din Ashena, in 1396 gives recommendations to the Minister of Education and the President that reopening special schools like gifted schools and government models where rural people study well is an obstacle to the development of non-governmental schools. Mr. Fani, Minister of Education in the eleventh administration, as a roadmap specifically determined that we can bring non-governmental schools from eight percent to twenty percent during the eight years of the Rouhani administration. This was dictated to provincial directors general and it is happening. Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani during his development program comes and plans with executives that one of the development indicators, despite the explicit text of the constitution, is the growth of non-governmental schools. This deviation started there and continues to this day.
All ministers of education thought that education should be run cheaply. Cheap education means not having a virtual network. It means not having strong and capable teachers. It means not having equipped schools and technical colleges. It means buying educational services for teachers who are hired and we give them a worker’s minimum wage. And that’s just not cash. It’s on credit. After a year they pay the teacher’s salary. Mr. Rouhani said that we are demanding from parliament to agree that we privatize ten percent of government schools each year. Who is feeding this idea to the President? The same ministers and people who dictate this to him in education. This same thinking is still in education. I won’t name names. Someone who is very knowledgeable in curriculum planning and I recognize his professorship in this field. He says that we should distribute coupons among people. And give subsidies to people and then take all schools out of government. People receive subsidies for their children. Now whoever puts more money goes to a better school. Whoever could get a school with that subsidy sends his child to study. That is, you recognize class differences and the stratification of education. This charter school plan in America also went bankrupt. In England they prevented implementing such a plan.
What I want to say is a commodified and commercial approach to education. Cheap running of education. Reducing costs. That is, some believe education is not an investment. It’s an expense. Because it’s an expense, expenses must be cut. They believe infrastructure has added value and should be funded for infrastructure. A cement plant has added value and should be funded for it. But the factory for making human beings, shut it down or let whoever wants run it cheaply.
Let’s also take a look at the Shad network or the student social network and understand your view of it. What is your assessment and analysis of damage regarding the Shad network?
Unfortunately, a significant portion of parents, teachers, and students, whether urban or rural, lack the necessary media literacy and we have problems in this regard. Regarding this network, we also have the problem of infrastructure not being in place. Now we have internet problems in some areas. Or there were cases where in corona conditions the school principal was forced to mark teachers present and absent. Because in the Shad network we couldn’t seriously engage parent participation, and then we are oblivious to the needs.
Of course, I should mention that the Shad network is a choice between bad and worse. In corona conditions, it is an option in the face of complete shutdown. The Shad network is better than nothing in these conditions. But imagine a family from the vulnerable sector living in one room. Some don’t even have a television. They lack familiarity. They don’t have devices like smartphones and tablets. Then the Executive Headquarters of the Imam’s Order says we’ll give tablets at four million tomans that they pay in six installments. Well, these servants of God don’t even have this money and ability. Parental supervision, people who haven’t been educated themselves. In a room where there are four or five children. How can this supervise? And then because we didn’t previously provide necessary training in media literacy to students, students have limited learning capacity. In a classroom next to peers with that enthusiasm and desire and face-to-face with the teacher, still many students don’t learn. One of the things that disrupts learning is the learning environment itself. How do we expect with a small phone, a family of five or six people sitting in one room, for a student in that room to understand the lesson and respond to it? What the teacher asks of him? There is no mechanism for oversight. The Shad network will certainly cause severe educational decline and loss. We will have to wait years for this. The educational gap will lead to great injustice, the results of which we will see in entrance exams and elsewhere and in student illiteracy. The leniency we had in these exams. For example, last year this leniency occurred and everyone passed.
The next point is that because that electronic content production didn’t happen, the methods that teachers now use via phone are the same one-way lecture. Because the teacher hasn’t been trained, he can’t have the necessary flexibility and can’t take advantage of the benefits of this network. The officials themselves said this system has flaws that will be gradually fixed. But what we see is that these flaws have not been fixed. Then this Shad network cannot have the necessary attractions that would bind the student and make him interested. Student behavior at home in these conditions is simply not controllable. There are distracting factors. There is interference. There are environmental obstacles. There are livelihood difficulties. I know that some of our students have become child laborers. That is, today’s livelihood problems have brought them to a place where learning is set aside. Academic decline has increased. Social harms and risky behaviors are waiting for these students. In this regard, I think we should have formed oversight groups that would be present in provinces and different regions and follow up on the work. This network did not give autonomy to the provinces so that cities and provinces could define a regional, provincial, or local Shad network for themselves. This oversight is weak. Here too, of course, I see corruption. The person in charge of this network himself runs distance education centers. He was one of the founders of distance education centers in Iran and has taken control of this network.
We are dealing with this virtual education. This virtual education is accompanied by effects such as student inactivity and the lack of educational impact of schools. You have mentioned the hidden curriculum in other conversations, which in this situation is the responsibility of parents. What is your view in this field and do you think, given the current situation we are facing, what can be done to solve these problems?
It’s a good point. We have an official curriculum. We have a curriculum in implementation. We have a hidden curriculum. One should not imagine that what happens in school is only what is transferred from the content of textbooks and ends with exams. A hidden education happens in school. That is, from the school principal, the executive staff who go back and forth in it, the students themselves with each other, those who have dealings in school and come and go. All of these affect the behavior, beliefs, thinking, and perspective of the student. These actually might be more lasting in the student’s behavior and mind and memory than the content of textbooks. In the old days, when schools ended, children would tear up textbooks and if someone asked them a month later what was that problem from that lesson, no one had an answer! But a series of memories remained in the student’s mind. He would say such a teacher or such a school servant or such a person at school gave me a lesson that even after decades in life is still in my mind and has become part of my behavior. It changed my perspective and thinking about life. This is hidden curriculum. Now it can be positive or negative. Now that children have become homebound and sometimes are alone at home. We don’t have educational programs for children now. Some children have even become vendors and do business. Well, depending on the environment. Whether you’re in the suburbs or the top of the city. Every place has its own specific problems. This is where we didn’t provide the necessary training to parents. It is true that television sometimes brings a psychologist and sometimes a psychiatrist or different professors who each have scattered recommendations for fighting depression and problems of being alone. All of these have structure in education. But in practice and implementation, we are weak. For example, we had a parent and educator association that now has become a council. What have we really done to train parents? I’m not speaking for now and I’m not exonerating myself. I want to say that in the last forty years we haven’t acted well in this regard and we are behind the world. We didn’t take parent participation seriously. We didn’t provide the necessary training to parents. Well, now we want to bring up sex education. Some are opposed. We want to say we should take the issue of child harassment and abuse seriously, some say don’t bring it up because if you open it up (address and explain it) such and such will happen. This is part of the work that should be addressed with parents. Or for example, now that all kids from village to city have to deal with phones, do you think all their concern is just the Shad network?! Don’t they enter other fields?! Are other issues not created in the internet and other places? They become addicted to the virtual space. This addiction to virtual space has both advantages and disadvantages. What have we done in this regard? We were supposed to fill the educational gaps in the Shad network too. Of course, I don’t necessarily mean that education should be separated from upbringing. Because textbooks and teachers have both educational and upbringing roles and this is an integrated matter.
Also, for example, what have we done to boost the morale of students? How do we want to solve student sports? Or how do we want to create relationships between students? How do we want to fill the space of morning assembly and lunch breaks and field trips and many programs and competitions in school? Now home has replaced all of these spaces. With the problems and difficulties that have been created for some families. Especially in bankrupt economic corona conditions. The behavioral harms that have been created. Once, six to eight hours in school, a child interacted with different types of people and relieved himself of the sorrows and worries and space of home, and this space was complementary to the student’s personality. Now, especially for children starting elementary school, this opportunity has been taken away. In first grade of elementary school, nothing can replace the teacher and face-to-face view of the teacher with the student. Our greatest concern now is first grade. In first grade, the student develops a lasting emotional relationship with the teacher. We have in the transformation document that the first three years are cyclic education. That is, even if the teacher doesn’t change. Because in first grade, the student gets to know the teacher. In second grade, if the teacher changes, the student cries. The teacher has taken the place of his mother. In the transformation document, it says that as much as possible, the teacher of first, second, and third grades should not change. That is, one teacher for three years. Why do they talk about single teaching in elementary school? Because that emotional view and that lasting psychological and mental connection is effective and very influential in the student’s situation. Well, how do you want to fill this gap now? There are many issues that are not visible, and are not part of formal education tests. But they are effective in learning, thinking, and student behavior and remain. We call these the hidden curriculum.
Mr. Sahrakhiz, in any case, we now face this situation. That is, we are in corona conditions. Our education is untrained. We also have the Shad network, which you have mentioned some points about. You were also deputy minister of education for a period. Given your experience in the executive body and your expert view, what can be done in the current situation? Is it possible to solve the problem with a few small changes? Or do we need fundamental changes in this educational structure to achieve results?
In my opinion, corona, despite all its harm, also had a benefit. It opened our eyes and ears to our problems. It made our failures, flaws, and harms clear and serious for us. I believe nothing replaces school. We have in the transformation document, educational packages that are not just books. Now corona appeared unwanted. We were forced to close our schools. Because we were forced to close, now we are compelled to say that with all the good and bad of the Shad network, we have to make do. This is better than nothing. Now let’s analyze this. If two days later a corona vaccine is found and schools reopen, let’s not brush the matter aside. Let’s learn lessons from unexpected events that happen and not say that, for example, an earthquake and flood came and that’s it. Now that an event has happened and we understand where our Achilles heel is, let’s plan to solve it. Parliament should now grab the minister’s collar and say what is your program for virtual education and intelligent use of modern technologies? What is your short-term, medium-term, and long-term program? We want these on paper and we also want to have an evaluation. If the budget is a problem and it can’t be done in a year, let it be done in five or ten years. But tell us what you’ve done? This hasn’t happened. As we say, the transformation document, whatever it is, do ten percent of it. Where is that ten percent? What have you done and why isn’t it being implemented? Some of the words in this document are words that are defensible at UNESCO and other international bodies and they are defending them. What have you done for the positive points of this document? Why don’t you take a step forward? When we talk about a quality teacher and quality education, and you yourself say that Farhangian University and Shahid Rajaii University should be strengthened, why are you hiring contract teachers to whom you pay 400,500 thousand tomans a month?
Now the Shad network is a train in motion. We can fix the defects it has. Where is there no internet access so the Minister of Information Technology can get involved? Some students don’t have phones. Let charities get involved. If education can help, let it. Let Mr. President help. If it is to be a loan or special allocation, some of it should be for here. Because educational justice is an issue that if ignored, will cause many problems for society tomorrow. Let’s eventually fix this moving train. But let’s be careful that if schools reopen tomorrow, we don’t brush aside the problems. The time of chalk and blackboard is over. You can’t teach biology with the same old lecture method. Some of our schools now don’t have laboratories. But now with a tablet, you can bring a chemistry lab to the classroom. These are the positive features of virtual education and should be placed alongside the book. For example, the Research Organization should get involved and produce electronic content. Train teachers. Alongside books, there should also be teaching packages and software and CDs.
In Iran, we don’t have a problem with laws. We have documents galore. Some people are document traders. Groups that go around and talk about documents from province to province and take their money. But nothing happens in implementation. We want implementation. Everyone knows what happens in Finland or Japan and what they do. The question is what are you doing in Iran? What has happened in the sphere of our schools?
Source: Hrana
