Review of the teacher ranking bill in the Parliament's Education Committee in the absence of the Minister of Education

The teacher rating bill, which the Guardian Council has raised objections to and teachers have also criticized, was reviewed again by the Education Committee of the Islamic Consultative Assembly on Monday, February 8.

Yousef Nouri, the Minister of Education, did not attend the meeting, and his absence led to criticism.

The teacher rating bill was passed by the Islamic Consultative Assembly on December 14 and sent to the Guardian Council for approval, but due to objections raised by the council, it was returned to the Assembly.

According to reports, the main objections that the Guardian Council has to the teacher rating bill are related to the financial burden of implementing the bill.

The Parliament's Education, Research, and Technology Committee held a meeting on Monday, February 8, to examine these issues. The Minister of Education was absent, and this issue drew criticism from some representatives.

Mohammad Molavi, deputy chairman of the parliamentary education commission, described Yousef Nouri's absence from today's meeting of the commission as a sign of his "inattention" to the teacher rating bill and as "unjustifiable."

Mohammad Molavi told Khaneh Mellat News Agency on Monday, February 8: "The Minister of Education was invited as the main guest of the meeting, because according to Article 75, the presence of the Minister of Education was required for the approval of a clause that has a financial burden, but he did not attend."

He added: "Given that the Vice President, in a meeting in the open chamber of the parliament, accepted the provision of 25 trillion tomans of funding for the implementation of the teacher rating bill, but this issue has not been officially announced to the Guardian Council, the main ambiguities of this council are related to the financial burden of implementing the rating bill, and for this reason, the presence of the minister as a government representative in today's meeting of the Education Commission was of great importance."

The MP attributed the absence of the Minister of Education in this meeting to the delay in presenting the teacher rating bill to the open floor of the parliament, and further announced his readiness to begin the process of impeaching him.

The performance of Education Minister Yousef Nouri under the Raisi administration has also been criticized by educators, and teachers have called for his resignation in their protest rallies.

The approval and implementation of the teacher ranking plan is one of the main demands of educators who have held several nationwide rallies in dozens of Iranian cities in recent months.

According to this bill, which was approved by the Islamic Consultative Assembly on December 14, if a teacher's salary is less than 80 percent of the basic faculty salary of a Tehran university, the difference will be considered for him or her as an "adaptation difference."
However, teachers describe the bill as "a compromise" and say the cap does not meet their demands.

Teachers have announced that they will continue to hold protest rallies until their demands are met.

Working and retired educators say their income is below the poverty line and are calling for the elimination of discrimination.

Source: Voice of America