Iran's Ministry of Education fails to deliver on promises

Mohammad Reza Niknejad

Sep 30, 2019

Iranian Muslim teacher Noushin Beigi (R) and an Armenian schoolboy gesture during a mathematics class at the Armen school, in the Julfa neighbourhood in the historic city of Isfahan, some 400 kms south of the capital Tehran, on April 20, 2015. Julfa neighborhood in Isfahan is where the biggest Armenian community in Iran resides and was established as an Armenian quarter by Persian Safavid King Shah Abbas I in 1606. Some 180.000 Armenians were living in Iran before the Islamic revolution in 1979, compared t — Iranian Muslim teacher Noushin Beigi (R) and an Armenian schoolboy gesture during a mathematics class at the Armen school, Isfahan, Iran, April 20, 2015. — BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images

World Teachers’ Day is held annually Oct. 5 to celebrate the role of teachers in providing quality education at all levels. While some local governments in Iran don't permit the day's observance, teachers’ guild associations will often observe the day by issuing statements and holding small ceremonies. Sometimes there are limited protests.

This year's theme is "Young Teachers: The Future of the Profession." The day commemorates the adoption of recommendations reached in 1966 by the International Labor Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). UNESCO's concept note on the topic says teachers "too easily serve as scapegoats for the failures of education systems."