Possibility of adding Chinese to foreign language courses in Iranian schools

Ali Mohebi, head of the curriculum planning department at the Iranian Educational Research and Planning Organization, spoke on Sunday about the possibility of including Chinese and Arabic in the list of foreign language courses taught in schools.

In an interview with ISNA news agency, he said: "In the national curriculum and Supreme Council approvals, the teaching of English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian has been approved and recognized."

Regarding the proposal made by the former head of the Research Organization to include new languages ​​such as Chinese and Arabic in the list of foreign language teaching options last year, Mr. Mohebbi said: "Definitely, when we say foreign language, if there is another official international foreign language, we should add it to the list of approved languages."

Mohebbi continued: "It is possible that the discussion of other foreign languages ​​will be seriously raised next year."

Officials in the Islamic Republic have previously expressed displeasure with Iranians' willingness to learn English. This is the first time that the issue of teaching Chinese in Iranian schools has been seriously raised.

In 2016, the Leader of the Islamic Republic criticized the promotion of English in Iranian educational institutions and said, "Things have now reached a point where English language teaching has been extended to kindergartens."

English is not part of the official Iranian curriculum for the first six years of primary school. However, various private and semi-public schools, as well as a small number of public schools, offer English as an extracurricular activity to students, and these classes are not mandatory.

Following Ayatollah Khamenei's remarks, the Ministry of Education banned the teaching of English in elementary schools.

Then, in October of last year, 57 members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, citing the words of the Leader of the Islamic Republic, presented an urgent plan to eliminate English language lessons from all Iranian schools.

If these representatives' plan were approved in parliament, English language teaching would be removed from schools and only taught in free schools under the supervision of this ministry.

The bill also would have banned the employment of English language teachers in education. However, the bill was not passed.

Source: Radio Farda