While facing a severe shortage of teachers and contending with the challenging condition of schools, where at least three million students are studying in dilapidated and hazardous environments, the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Education has undertaken a noteworthy initiative.
In alignment with the government’s strategy to exert influence and mold students’ perspectives, the Minister of Education, Reza Morad Sahrai, has enlisted 19,000 clerics and scholars under the designation of ‘educational teachers.’ This move implicitly discloses the ministry’s intention to deploy a cleric in each school.
Sahrai, affirming the ongoing recruitment of scholars to be stationed in schools, asserted, “We emphasize the continuation of the presence of clergy in schools.” Furthermore, he highlighted the implementation of the ‘Mehrab Plan,’ revealing plans for 64,000 congregational prayers to be conducted in schools.
Notably, Sahrai unveiled the ‘plan to construct 9,000 mosques in schools’ as a pivotal action, emphasizing the ongoing construction of 7,280 prayer rooms at the school and educational center levels.
Despite alarming revelations by Qassem Ahmadi Lashki, the Legal Deputy and Parliamentary Affairs representative of the Ministry of Education, who, on December 17, 2023, disclosed that approximately three million Iranian students are studying in unsafe and perilous educational spaces, the ministry continues its religious-centric initiatives. Lashki warned that in the event of an earthquake, these students’ lives would be at risk.
Even the Tasnim news agency previously reported that over 11% of the 107,000 schools in Iran lack municipal and rural piped water, with more than 5,000 schools lacking proper toilet facilities. Regime officials have made assurances to rebuild dilapidated schools and address non-standard educational environments, yet these promises remain unfulfilled.
Sahrai’s recent statements underscore the ministry’s prioritization of imposing the regime’s medieval ideology on students over safeguarding their lives and health in deteriorating schools.
He asserted that the ‘fundamental transformation of education’ necessitates students to possess forty characteristics, including being monotheistic and prayerful, with an emphasis on prayer as a cornerstone in education.
In a bid to institutionalize religious practices, Sahrai detailed the establishment of 32 study and specialized commissions at the provincial level on the topic of prayer. Furthermore, he announced the initiative to train 20,000 muezzins in the country’s schools. Another program, the ‘School, Mosque, Family Plan,’ is said to be implemented in 3,600 schools.
Despite the current deployment of numerous seminary students and clerics in schools with various designations, the regime plans to hire an additional 19,000 clerics as ‘educational teachers.’ Sahrai justified this move by stating, “We have a lack of educational teachers in schools,” citing the establishment of an educational teachers campus in Qom as part of the recruitment agenda.
Sahrai, alluding to the student protests during the nationwide uprising against the regime in 2022, characterized the hiring of clerics and the expansion of religious programs in schools as an ‘active fight’ against the students.
The Ministry of Education’s strategy also involves hiring female seminary students as ‘primary teachers’ and dispatching students to schools under the title of ‘soldier scholars.’ The influx of seminary students as teachers in the country’s schools has intensified, with at least 24,000 participating in the ‘Amin’s plan.’
This year alone, an additional four thousand seminary students have been added, bringing the total number of seminary students and clerics under the ‘Amin Plan’ to over 28,000. With the imminent recruitment of 19,000 more scholars and clerics, the total number based in schools is projected to reach at least 47,000 individuals.
The Ministry’s recent statements indicate a broader plan to escalate the number of clerics stationed in schools to at least 107,000, corresponding to the total number of schools in Iran. This suggests a plan to assign at least one scholar and cleric to each school.
These measures have gained momentum following the nationwide uprising in 2022, where students held protests, resulting in schools transforming into protest centers. The regime responded with mass arrests and forceful actions, including casualties among students.
Ahmad Alireza Beigi, a member of the regime’s parliament, acknowledged the arrest of at least ‘200 students’ in Tehran alone. However, the regime has refrained from providing comprehensive statistics on the number of students killed and detained.
Additionally, hundreds of female students suffered poisoning and injuries during the wave of the ‘suspicious poisoning of school students,’ which originated in Qom in November 2022 and subsequently spread throughout the country.
