At the start of this academic year, it was reported that the country was wholly unprepared to accommodate the 14.6 million Iranians that were due to start school. Many decrepit buildings did not get desperately-needed funding to update safety and many schools were not able to accommodate the number of children registered. Furthermore, it was reported that there is a shortage of around 100,000 teachers across the country.

Discrimination is also very present in the education system and the differences between the educational services in bigger cities compared to that of small towns and villages are startling.

Access to education is very problematic because many families in Iran are not able to afford the basic school essentials and some children are forced to work on the streets to contribute to the household income. More and more children are dropping out of high school and university because of the rising costs.

On Sunday 13th October, many students at the Amir Kabir University in Tehran participated in a demonstration because of the policies in place that have seen the administration put huge price increases in place, meaning that more and more students are unable to remain to study. 

The students were heard chanting “Students! Support us” and called on officials to take action against the university management’s corruption. They expressed their disgust that they are forced to pay massive costs while the regime plunders the nation’s wealth on terrorist activities, the export of Islamic extremism, and other warmongering activities.

Despite their sit-in and protest, the university management did not respond to the action taken by the students at all.

This is not the only university that is faced with such issues – many university students across the country are dealing with the same corrupt practices that are making their fees rise beyond all affordability. The government, according to the regime’s own laws, is obliged to assist students with the payment of their university fees. However, over the years, this obligation has been abandoned more and more, meaning that families and the students have to fork out the fees by themselves.

This is a major problem because the economic climate of Iran does not permit this. Families are getting poorer and poorer and many people are slipping into the absolute poverty category. As a result, many students have had no choice but to simply drop out of university.