Critics give Iranian education low marks

In May, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced the country's education system as "imported" from the west and urged that it become more "Iranian and Islamic".

Such denunciations by senior officials in the Islamic republic are not new. Hamid-Reza Hajibabaei, the education minister, has repeatedly called for a "fundamental change" in Iran's schools based on Islamic values.

To that end, Mr Hajibabei is trying to increase the number of Quran schools to act as "cultural bases" and has urged clerics to play a bigger role in classrooms.

The Iranian authorities launched about 10,000 Quran schools last year, according to the education ministry, where 1.5m students take lessons after school. The ministry plans to increase the number to 50,000 institutions.

But, more than 30 years after the Islamic regime imposed strict segregation of boys and girls and expanded the time devoted to religious teaching, some in the political establishment are beginning to recognise that the country's education system is failing.

Authorities and experts agree that teaching methods, school books, teachers skills, facilities and structures in conventional schools need to improve.

"The debate that our schools are not Islamic enough or include western culture is irrelevant," says Shirzd Abdollahi, a former teacher and now a writer on education. "Students must learn today's science and life skills like elsewhere in the world, while cultural differences are taken into account as well."

Iran does not take part in the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), the main international test of educational standards, but it participates in Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (Timss), another benchmark.

In 2007, the last round for which results are available, Iranian nine- and 10-year-old students came 28th out of 36 countries participating in Timss and 13-14 year olds 34th out of 48. This placed Iran above the likes of Qatar, Syria and Bahrain, but behind Jordan and Turkey.

That Iran's schools fared as well as they did may be because some leading institutions survived the Islamic revolution.

High-profile schools in the days of the shah, such as the Alborz High School in Tehran, although now state-run retain their status as elite institutions. In the private sector, Nikan School and Alavi Institute are also highly selective.

There is a recognition that Iran's school system, which caters for 12.3m students and employs more than 1m teachers, is too teacher-centred.

Instructors tend to give lessons as though they are lecturing and students are passive listeners. Classes usually have more than 30 students. High school students tend to graduate with little in the way of practical skills and are often crammed for the all-important and dreaded Konkour, the university entrance exam.

Mehdi Navid-Adham, secretary-general of the High Education Council, a state body, admits that the system focuses only on "transfer of knowledge" and preparation for university entrance. "Being admitted to university is one, and not all, of children's needs. They need to learn other skills too," he says.

Unlike in some Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates or Egypt, there is little or no option to adopt a foreign curriculum.

Iranian parents do have the option of a sending their children to private schools, which were allowed to re-open in the late 1980s. They now constitute 8 per cent of the country's schools but the education ministry says 500,000 places in these institutions remain empty.

Ali, a 37-year old computer expert and married father of one, complains of the pressure put on his family because his son's private school wanted to be the best in its district.

"My wife worked with Aryan [his son] almost every day from 4pm until 9pm for him to be among the best. That was too much pressure on me, my wife and the boy," says Ali.

Apart from their heavy tuition fees, which may run to IR50m ($4,650) a year, parents suspect that private schools pad their results to make it seem pupils are doing better than they are.

Critics say the private sector is often more focused on making money than on quality. State interference is also considerable. Private schools have to use the same books as those taught in state schools, and choose teachers and principals based on rules similar to those in the public sector.

Nourollah Haydari, spokesman for parliament's education committee, says most of the staff in the private schools comprise retired teachers or state-school instructors working a second shift.

Mr Haydari adds that parents have become sceptical of private schools because they do not take the quality of their education seriously "for the sake of not losing their customers". However, many middle-class parents feel they have little choice.

"I didn't want my Aryan to be punished as I was in my state school. But I don't want him to have no time for play as he had last year," Ali says.

Source: The Financial Times