‘Shad' Welcomed by Islamic Countries: HajiMirzaei

In a meeting with some of the newly elected MPs of the 11th parliament of the Islamic republic of Iran, Dr. Mohsen HajiMirzaei, the Minister of Education, stated that our goal is to improve the status of education, adding that the Islamic countries have welcomed the Shad app at the ISESCO summit.

He congratulated the elected members and said: I hope the next parliament take steps towards the progress of the country and fulfilling the ideals of the Islamic Revolution and the guidelines of the Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

 “There is no doubt that lasting change results from proper education; what will shape the future of the country is educational programs.”

Stating that the most important opportunity for educating the society is in the hands of the Ministry of Education, HajiMirzaei said: this shows the importance of the education system, and we have to see what the status of the education system in practice is.

“We should world together to improve the status of this ministry. We've conducted some research on the problems of education which shows some problems existed before the Revolution and continue to be to this day.”

 “Access to education and the reduction of illiteracy in the country are achievements of the Revolution;’ he added. “This challenge is over, thanks to the Revolution and free education is available in the remote areas of the country.”

Referring to the other challenges of the Ministry, HajiMirzaei said one of the current challenges is to find out how much the educational content meets the needs of the society. The other challenge is the shortage of personnel and we aim to increase the number of teachers by any means.

 

30% of schools need to be rebuilt and renovated

He pointed out that despite the valuable services provided by the government as well as donors, 30% of schools still need to be rebuilt and renovated.

 

Referring to some Acts of Parliament on the employment, the Minister of Education said that another problem of this ministry was so any employees who faced a kind of uncertainty of their employment, so efforts were made to solve the situation and employ those who meet the educational needs of the society.

 

Good budget is required to implement Education Transformation Plan

He said that in the best case scenario, the ministry budget would only meet the current salaries of employees, noting that there was not enough budget to implement the Education Transformation Plan and no credit had been allocated to this plan. “Members of parliament must take steps to address the budgetary problems of education and the budget structure of the ministry needs to be reformed.”

HajiMirzaei described Education Ministry as the most extensive executive body in the country, adding it has been three decades that the tasks of this ministry is to educate every high school student with a skill; it is time to evaluate the success of this strategy.

 

A main law for Education Ministry should be drafted

 “We expect MPs to introduce a main law for Education Ministry;” he added. The position of teachers leads. “Many laws have been passed in the parliament, but they have not been able to solve the problems so far, so a law must be drafted which improves the statues of teachers.”

“Despite the efforts made in recent years, the Education Transformation Plan has not made a significant difference because we do not see any changes in students and teachers.

 

100 criteria to determine the location of schools

HajiMirzaei noted that good ‘sub-systems’ have been developed for the implementation of the Education Transformation Plan; however, he believes that the idea of this plan should understandable for each and every one. “That is why we have prepared more than 25 packages that guide people for carry on this plan.”

“One of the transformation packages is to teach reading and writing skills to students. Another one is called brick-to-brick plan, which aims to involve the public in school building. Another transformation package is called ‘finding locations for schools’ because some school were built in places where there is no student, and vice versa. 100 criteria have been determined so that schools can be built in a place that is necessary and appropriate for the students.”

"The global belief is that it is not possible to get rid of corona any time soon;" he said, referring to the problems caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 in the world's education systems. “The question is, shouldn't there be a change in the school's timetable?”

 

Shad welcomed by Islamic countries

Referring to the emergency video conference of ISESCO members, the minister of education said that Iran’s strategies to provide educational training have been used in other countries; however, Iran’s innovation to launch Shad Local Network besides using TV and online opportunities, has attracted the attention of other countries.

“TV programs were not interactive, Shad Local Network provides the opportunity for teachers and students to interact. Moreover, it has other great features including easy access to the network and various channels including sports and parents and teachers forum.”

He added: “more than 12.5 million students and 97% of the teachers enjoy the Shad network and 1,200 billion messages were send via this network which shows Shad was welcomed by people,”

"We are determined to keep the field of education out of the political fray," he said, adding that lawmakers should help ministry so the best people of each region are chosen to manage the local office of the ministry.

“We all know the general situation of the country,” he concluded; “we are not going to give special privileges to teachers, but we want the teachers to be like other government employees.”

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