One of the main objectives set by public libraries in Iran for the year 2025 is to cultivate a culture of reading among a wider audience, especially children, adolescents, and young people. However, with Iranians currently averaging a mere 18 minutes of reading per week, it remains questionable whether this ambition can be achieved within the remaining two years.

Investing in increasing the reading time among children and adolescents may prove to be a vital step in improving the prevailing state of reading in the country. However, it is disheartening to witness the abundance of children flocking to toy stores, while bookstores and libraries remain deserted.

Toys create attraction for these children, but books have not been able to create such attraction. The preference for giving or receiving anything other than books as gifts, the reluctance to spend money on reading from the family’s economic basket, and the unawareness of the importance of reading by parents are all factors that lead to a future where children are devoid of creativity and confidence, burdened with thousands of challenges in expressing their desires and needs verbally or in writing, and handing them over to the society.

Reading books is one of the most important methods of enhancing capabilities in children and adolescents, an Iranian scholar has said.

Reading books has a direct impact on the future character of a child, as it enhances life skills and creates an interest in learning, ISNA quoted Zahra Zare as saying on Wednesday.

Reading books strengthens skills such as conversation with others to listen well, respect for others, increasing vocabulary, poetry, proverbs, strengthening imagination, creativity, curiosity, focus, and self-confidence, she added.

Reading books increases the vocabulary level in children and familiarizes them with different sentence constructions, writing styles, and expression methods, while also enhancing their understanding of the content, she mentioned.

She also highlighted the benefits of reading books in children, including increasing knowledge and empathy, and emphasized that reading books introduces children and adolescents to different cultures, ideas, and beliefs, and they will explore more in topics of interest.

She stated that reading increases children’s understanding of their environment and helps their cognitive growth. She said, “Books are the best form of entertainment for everyone, especially a valuable source of learning for children, as they stimulate the child’s mind and encourage critical thinking, allowing them to express their own opinions about what they have read.”

She also considered focus and concentration as important reading skills, especially for reading aloud, and added, “Reading constantly calms the child’s mind and body and allows them to focus on a specific task.”

Reading books during childhood has a lasting impact on a child’s success in education and life, she stated.

When reading a story, children use their creativity and imagination to create a visual representation in their minds, and they can guess what will happen next or come up with a similar story, she added.

She emphasized that it is better to start reading books from an early age and using audio books and radio stories for older children can also be very effective.

“It is better to choose various topics, including scientific subjects such as animal life, bees, ants, plants, trees, forests, mountains, seas, fruit benefits, and foods, as well as historical, scientific, and religious stories, reading historical letters, personal lives of scientific and religious figures, and any subject that increases the child’s scientific, emotional, and intellectual level for the child to read.”

She stressed that children’s books should be full of colorful and cheerful images, have creative content, and be attractive for children to read.

“Books should have characters that can make the right decisions in difficult situations and have a happy ending,” she mentioned.

“We need to initiate a love for reading books ourselves, and books should become a part of our lives like any other belongings and items. By doing so, we can cultivate a reading habit in our children from an early age,” she concluded.

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Barekat Foundation supports new ideas in building schools, Mohammad Torkamaneh, the CEO of Barekat Foundation, said on Tuesday.

The Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and training camps, and green management of schools, will be taken into consideration.The Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and training camps, and green management of schools, will be taken into consideration in the construction of these schools, he said.

Some 3,750 villages across the country are covered by the Barekat Foundation’s school-building activities.

According to Torkamaneh, 1,800 schools have been constructed for the deprived, there are currently 250,000 students in Barekat schools.

Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam was founded in 1989. In the Iranian calendar year, 1386 (March 2017-March 2018) Barekat Charity Foundation- the social arm of the organization- with the aim of promoting social justice was established.

Socio-economic empowerment of communities by encouraging entrepreneurship prioritizing breadwinner women, developing infrastructures such as water supply and power grids, building roads, constructing schools and increasing educational spaces, promoting health for all, and granting non-repayable loans and insurance, especially in less developed areas and regions most affected by 1980s war and natural disasters are of the priorities of the charity foundation.

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“No one should be deprived of education due to poverty,” Raisi said at the official opening ceremony of the 2021-2022 school year.

He said investment in education is a great asset.

“Spending on education is the largest investment and the country’s progress happens through education and training,” Raisi noted.

Insisting that all institutions must help and serve education, Raisi called school a “pillar of social solidarity.”

He also said that all Iranians appreciated school better during the COVID-19 conditions and realized how important school is as a point of connection between the house and other aspects of society.

The President added, “I must also sincerely thank all the women and mothers of the society who played the role of teachers in homes for the children during the closure of schools.”

This experience showed what important capacities the family and mothers have that should be considered and promoted in the growth of society, he noted.

“The pivotal position and fundamental role of schools requires that all institutions of the country in various fields of media, economy, culture, etc. help education and all institutions are obliged to serve the school,” Raisi continued.

The president added that spending resources on education is not a cost but the largest and most productive investment that can guarantee the future of the country.

He noted that if the education reform document is not implemented, the schools and education system in the country will not be reformed.
“The school must be transformation-seeking and the transformation of the school depends on the work being in the hands of those seeking transformation.”

He said should it should be specified why the remaining parts of the reform document have not been implemented so far.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the president said since about two-third of the Iranian population have been vaccinated against the Covid-19 Pandemic preparations should be made to open schools.

“According to the plans, we will soon reach the goal of 70% vaccination of the society, and my request to the education officials is to make efforts towards the expansion of face-to-face education with strict observance of health protocols,” he stated.

The health ministry plans to vaccinate schoolchildren aged between 12-18.

Iran is one of the countries in the world greatly affected by the Coronavirus. Until Saturday (September 25) 119,72 people have lost their lives due to the pandemic.

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Each year, Iranian students start the school year on September 23, which marks the first day of autumn on the Iranian calendar, after three-month summer vacation.

The back-to-school ceremony is officially inaugurated by the president each year, as he rings the bells in a symbolic gesture at a chosen school.

Today, in different parts of the country and in the schools that were ready to receive students, the back-to-school bell rang so that the educational units could officially start their activities.

In Tehran, the ceremony was held in the presence of President Ebrahim Raeisi at a school in Shahr-e Rey, the southern part of Tehran.

Due to the vaccination and the reduction of transmission, schools are gradually reopened since September, and about 15 million students across the country can benefit from face-to-face education with strict observance of health protocols during school hours.

Considering that there are currently 94,449 state-run schools in the country, of which 44,363 have less than 75 students, it is possible to open schools with a limited number of students.

Education in schools with high student density and populated classrooms are also supposed to be followed both online and in-person so that on special days and with the necessary restrictions in accordance with the health protocols, classes are held in person.

Alireza Kazemi, the caretaker of the Ministry of Education, said that the new school year has started with the three slogans of “Continuing Education, Improving Quality and Ensuring Health” and all the necessary planning has been done for a gradual reopening with healthy students and teachers.

With the start of school operations, principals have been tasked with deciding how first-graders should attend school, which include 1,634,383 this year.

Iran Television School

All educational centers in Iran have been closed since February 2020.

In order for students to keep in touch with their studies, the Ministry of Education launched a homegrown mobile application on April 9, called SHAD, providing students with distance learning programs. More than 60 percent of students and 94 percent of teachers attended 64 percent of classes through the SHAD app, whose acronym in Persian translates as the Students Education Network.

Moreover, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) also began to broadcast televised educational programs on a daily basis after school closures.

The reopening bell of “Iran Television School ” also rang at the beginning of the academic year.

Teaching in the TV school is one of the best and strongest presentations, despite the most experienced teachers, and it can be said that one of the best things done during the pandemic was to “establish educational justice” through creating a “TV school”.

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Over the past year (March 2020-March 2021), some 50 percent of the country’s schools have been constructed either entirely charitable or in partnership with the government and charities, Mehrollah Rakhshanimehr, director of the Organization for Development, Renovation, and Equipping Schools, has said.

Over the past year, a sum of 30 trillion rials (about $700 million at the official rate of 42,000 rials) has been allocated to school construction and renovation by the benefactors, he explained.

“Brick-by-brick” national plan has so far collected 80 billion rials (about $2 million at the official rate of 42,000 rials), Rakhshanimehr further stated.

The plan started early last year and was highly welcome by benevolent people, aiming to encourage people to donate money for building schools in deprived areas of the country, he added.

Rakhshanimehr said in August 2020 that some 30 percent of the country’s schools have been constructed by school-building benefactors; there are 450 school-building charities in Iran.

Iran has many school-building benefactors amounting to 650,000 people inside and 1,000 people outside the country.

A total of 36 trillion rials (nearly $857 million at the official rate of 42,000 rials) has been allocated to renovate the schools nationwide over the past 8 years, Seyed Mohammad-Ali Afshani, former head of the Organization for Development, Renovation, and Equipping Schools, said on Saturday.

There are some 107,000 schools nationwide with 530,000 classes, 160,000 of which are dilapidated, not meeting safety standards, accounting for 30 percent of the schools nationwide.

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The budget is partially paid by the Ministry of Education and the benefactors by the end of this year (March 2020), Fars quoted Haji Mirzaei as saying on Tuesday.

Referring to the students’ population of 15 million in the country, he noted: “There are 150,000 schools which is not sufficient, so we try to increase the number of educational facilities.”

In December 2018, Mehrollah Rakhshanimehr, director of the organization for renovation, development, and equipment of schools said that 30 percent of the schools nationwide are old, of which some 12 percent must be completely rebuilt and 18 percent must be retrofitted, which requires a total budget of $3 billion.

There are 530,000 classrooms nationwide, 160,000 of which are dilapidated, not meeting safety standards, he added.

Last year it was said that in the Iranian calendar year 1382 (March 2003-March 2004), the proportion of standard schools to old ones was the opposite, 30 percent of schools met required standards and the rest were old, the officials highlighted, adding, “in the fifth five-year development plan some $4 billion was allocated from the forex reserve fund for Iran school renovation projects.”

After that a total budget of $3 billion was needed to rebuild and renovate the remaining 30 percent of the schools, he concluded.

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As per an article of the sixth five-year development plan (2016-2021), $3 billion can be withdrawn from the National Development Fund for renovating and equipping schools, ISNA quoted Mehrollah Rakhshanimehr as saying.

If received, the budget can quickly resolve both issues of renovating schools and building classrooms, he highlighted.

Rakhshanimehr also added that during fourth and fifth five-year development plans, more than half of schools were restored nationwide costing 40 trillion rials (nearly $1 billion).

He went on to say that philanthropists’ support is needed to accelerate the renovation process.

Nomad schools’ poor status

Mohammad Reza Seifi, the caretaker for nomads’ education department affiliated with Ministry of Education, said that 40 percent of nomad schools lack appropriate educational space, meaning classes are held in tents, trucks, mud buildings or even in caves.

The population of nomads stands at 1.2 million in Iran and some 65 percent of them are aged below 30, he explained, adding, schools can be built in the regions where nomads have a long stay.

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The relief assistance was handed over to the representatives of the Iranian Red Crescent in Tehran on Wednesday in the presence of Imran Haider, Deputy Head of Mission who is also the vice chairman of the Pakistan embassy in Tehran as well a member of the board of governors at school, and Taj Shaheen, the school Principal.

The relief aid consignment included 13 boxes of clothes and toys, 112 boxes of canned food and dry milk, 43 boxes of food items including 15 bags of rice and tea bags, 18 packets of baby sanitary items, 9 blankets, winter and rain coats and shoes.

In addition to the aid in kind, PISCT also presented an amount of $1,500 in cash for the earthquake victims.

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Annually and prior to the opening of schools, which falls on the first day of the 7th Iranian calendar month of Mehr (September 23), the president raises a question dubbed “The Mehr Question” and asks students nationwide for sending replies to him.

“Here is this year’s Mehr Question: How can we turn schools into places for tolerating other people’s opinions and respecting them and how to practice to prevail morality, politeness and patience?” Rouhani said.

Outdated education system needs reform 

The education system must be reformed; Rouhani said, adding, students must have at least learnt a skill after graduating from school and it’s a job for all the teachers, authors of the school textbooks, and other officials.

Commenting on outdated education system and old textbooks Rouhani lamented that “We should prepare the students for 12 years from now not even today, while the education system and textbooks educate students for yesterday.”

“If we consider 12 years of schooling as 12 steps for making progress it means that after taking the final step one should demonstrate a level of ability and knowledge to find a proper job and start working,” the president highlighted.

“If we take a look at student textbooks in (13)30s and (13)40s [falling on 1950s and 60s] except for some pictures and the cover the content has not changed much,” Rouhani regretted.

The president noted that insisting on memorizing long textbooks instead of stimulating and facilitating innovation and helping student to broaden their skills is a great setback in the education system and what have hold students back.

“If we laugh at someone’s ideas and tease them it means that we are not tolerant of others’ opinion while being tolerant and respectful of others’ opinion paves the way for creativity and help students to work up the courage to be creative and get encouraged.”

“We must let students to ask questions and answer them patiently and if we succeed in creating such an environment at schools more skillful, creative, thoughtful, knowledgeable and interested people will be brought up,” he concluded.

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