The Iranian president’s advisor for women and family affairs Shahindakt Mulavardi said that three million and 200 thousand children, with the majority of girls, are deprived of education in Iran. According to Zamaneh News, Mulavardi said that providing quality education is one important goal of the Iranian educational system, asserting that most out-of-school students come from the underprivileged provinces.
Illiteracy rate among girls and women in Iran is worrying and severe in 40 Iranian cities, Mulavardi added, which contradicts the statements of the Iranian minister of education Ali Asgar Fani who said that boys represent 51% of students enrolled in schools and 49% girls, reducing the gap between boys and girls in schools after the revolution.
Illiteracy in the southern provinces, especially in Sistan and Baluchistan is the highest in Iran, followed by the Arab-majority province of Khozistan, West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan with Kurdish and Turkish majorities are next. The advisor added that cities bordering Iraq with Arab Majority such as Ahwaz are ranked first in terms of out-of-school children. In this province there are 90 thousand children below 18 years old are deprived of education. Poverty, child labor, and having no national identity are the main reasons that prevent children from going to school in Iran, according to Mulavardi.
In addition to that, statistics showed that depriving girls of education in Tehran and its suburbs are worrying for the Iranian officials. By the year 2030, it is scheduled that high-quality standards will be implemented in the Iranian educational system through a program called “Education for all” that is overseen by UNESCO. According to the fifth fiftieth plan, illiteracy was planned to disappear in Iran for people below 50 years old by the beginning of the year 2014, but instead of achieving this goal, 25% of Iranian children are deprived of education every year, as stated by Rouhani’s advisor.
Source: Zamaneh Agency
