EDUCATION AS A NATIONAL DOCTRINE

Minister of Education: We must turn education to a national doctrine, for; human resource is just as important asset as natural and physical assets.

According to PANA, Fakhreddin Danesh Ashtiani said in the session held on Ord 11 (May 01) for Teacher’s Week: Teacher’s Week is simultaneous with anniversary of Prof. Morteza Motahari who was very active. He used to ask me to criticize his work which means teacher-student is a two way interaction and he taught us this fact.

Minister of Education added: We should not have a one way look to students, but we should create a two way interaction. People like Shahid Motahari have been affectionately active in education throughout Iran’s history. The teacher wouldn’t have any impact on students, if he is not affectionate.

I regard education as an investment not a consuming system, continued he; and Supreme Leader also insists that authorities should consider education an investment.

I’ve tried to make realistic and reformist policies in this administration, so these concepts may spread to schools as well, said the Minister.

Mentioning that we shouldn’t expect education to solve problems in a short run, but we should move in this direction to achieve that point, he added: In development issues, I believe reform doctrine should be discussed. Education is the most important system which should be developed, because an efficient human resource is the result of efficient educational system.

Efficient human resource is the engine of development and an efficient educational staff requires that we turn education and its relevant issues to a national doctrine.

I believe that production and occupation are not dilemmas, for if we invest on education, we can solve these problems too, remarked Ashtiani.

Educational reform is the most urgent requirement for country’s development. Next issue is continuity between academic education and other levels of education. We have 13,500,000 students in 107,000 schools, but 5,000,000 students studying in 2,500 universities and colleges. Comparing these numbers reveals that there are empty spaces in our academic education while there are overloaded classes in elementary and intermediate schools and we should try to balance these numbers.