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Iran
Index
Prior to the mid-nineteenth century, it was traditional in Iran
for education to be associated with religious institutions. The
clergy, both Shia and non-Shia, assumed responsibility for
instructing youth in basic literacy and the fundamentals of
religion. Knowledge of reading and writing was not considered
necessary for all the population, and thus education generally was
restricted to the sons of the economic and political elite.
Typically, this involved a few years of study in a local school, or
maktab. Those who desired to acquire more advanced knowledge
could continue in a religious college, or madraseh, where
all fields of religious science were taught. A perceived need to
provide instruction in subjects that were not part of the
traditional religious curriculum, such as accounting, European
languages, military science, and technology, led to the
establishment of the first government school in 1851. For many
years this remained the only institution of higher learning in the
country.
By the early twentieth century there were several schools
teaching foreign languages and sciences, including a few for girls.
These schools were run by foreign missionaries, private Iranians,
and the government. Their function was to educate the children of
the elite. During the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1907), a
number of reform-minded individuals proposed the establishment of
a nationwide, public, primary school system. Progress in opening
new schools was steady but slow, and by the end of the Qajar
dynasty (1925) there were approximately 3,300 government schools
with a total enrollment of about 110,000 students.
During the Pahlavi era (1925-79), the government implemented a
number of policies aimed at modernizing the country and expanded
the education system. The Ministry of Education was given
responsibility for regulating all public and private schools and
drafted a uniform curriculum for primary and for secondary
education. The entire public system was secular and for many years
remained based upon the French model. Its objective was to train
Iranians for modern occupations in administration, management,
science, and teaching. This education system was the single most
important factor in the creation of the secularized middle class.
The goal of creating a nationwide education system was never
achieved during the Pahlavi era. In 1940 only 10 percent of all
elementary-age children were enrolled in school, and less than 1
percent of youths between the ages of 12 and 20 were in secondary
school. These statistics did not increase significantly until the
early 1960s, when the government initiated programs to improve and
expand the public school system. By 1978 approximately 75 percent
of all elementary-age children were enrolled in primary schools,
while somewhat less than 50 percent of all teenagers were attending
secondary schools.
Modern college and university education also was developed
under the Pahlavis; by the 1920s, the country had several
institutes of higher education. In 1934 the institutes associated
with government ministries were combined to form the University of
Tehran, which was coeducational from its inception. Following World
War II, universities were founded in other major cities, such as
Tabriz, Esfahan, Mashhad, Shiraz, and Ahvaz. During the 1970s,
these universities were expanded, and colleges and vocational
institutes were set up in several cities.
One of the first measures adopted by the government after the
Revolution in 1979 was the desecularization of the public school
system. This was a three-pronged program that involved purging
courses and textbooks believed to slander Islam and substituting
courses on religion; purging teachers to ensure that only those who
understood the true meaning of Islam (i.e., were not secular)
remained in the schools; and regulating the behavior and dress of
students.
Although the government reintroduced the study of religion into
the public school curriculum from primary grades through college,
it did not act to alter the basic organization of the education
system. Thus, as late as the school year 1986-1987, schools had not
changed significantly from the pattern prior to the Revolution.
Students studied in primary schools for five years, beginning the
first grade at about age seven. Then they spent three years,
designated the guidance cycle, in a middle school. In this cycle,
the future training of students was determined by their aptitude as
demonstrated on examinations. Students were then directed into one
of three kinds of four-year high schools: the academic cycle,
preparing for college; the science and mathematics cycle, preparing
for university programs in engineering and medicine; and the
vocational technical cycle.
The Ministry of Education announced that nearly 11.5 million
students were registered for elementary and secondary schools
during the academic year 1986-1987. Statistics on the percentage of
young people aged seven through nineteen enrolled in school have
not been available since the Revolution. It is generally estimated
that the percentages have remained similar to those before the
Revolution: school attendance of about 78 percent of elementary-age
children and less than 50 percent of secondary-age youth.
Since the Revolution, higher education has experienced
significantly more drastic changes than elementary and secondary
education. The university campuses became centers of conflict
between students who supported a thorough desecularization of
administrations, faculties, and curricula and students who wanted
to retain a secular system. There were violent clashes at several
universities in the 1979-1980 school year; as a result the
government closed all 200 institutes of higher learning in April
1980. The universities then were purged of professors and students
considered insufficiently Islamic and were not completely reopened
until the fall of 1983. When the colleges resumed classes, they
enrolled only a fraction of the 1979 to 1980 student body. At the
University of Tehran, Iran's largest, student enrollment was
reduced from 17,000 to 4,500; similarly large declines were
registered at other institutions. The decline in the number of
female students was even more dramatic: whereas on the eve of the
revolution women had constituted about 40 percent of the total
number of students in higher education, after 1983 they formed only
10 percent.
An educational problem in Iran since the early twentieth
century has been the general perception among the upper and middle
classes that foreign education is superior to Iranian. Thus, there
have been large numbers of Iranians studying abroad. As long as the
foreign-educated students returned to Iran, they were able to apply
their skills for the overall benefit of the country; however, under
both the monarchy and the Republic, thousands of Iranians have
elected not to return to their homeland, creating a veritable
"brain drain." Since the Revolution, the government has tried to
discourage Iranians from going abroad to study, although it has not
prevented the practice.
Data as of December 1987
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