Iran’s Minister of Education said that in order to solve the problem of dropouts, a Memorandum of Cooperation should be signed between the Ministry of Education and other government agencies.
In a meeting to identify, recruit, educate and maintain children who have dropped out of elementary schools, Mohsen Haji Mirzaei said that one of the brilliant achievements of the Islamic Republic is developing educational opportunities and reducing the educational gap between urban and rural areas, calling it an “important step to promote social justice.”
Referring to the statistics of school dropouts in Iran, he added: “Researches show that 50% of dropouts are due to problems such as family challenges of child labours, lack of access to school and problems of exceptional learners; therefore, we believe that these children can be supported.”
“50% of the dropouts are also related to children who are studying abroad and their absence are not registered or the child has passed away and his death has not been registered for various reasons. These cases are accounted as dropouts, while this is not correct.”
Haji Mirzaei added that the numbers of dropouts are not very high but the problem is complex; “We need to achieve Memorandum of Cooperation between Education Ministry and other government agencies.”
“We are trying to launch a digital centre for Education Ministry in near future to communicate online with other governmental agencies and organizations so that the data about students are reached in no time especially the data provided by National Organization for Civil Registration.”
Saying that the problem of dropping out of school is a common and will definitely be exacerbated by the coronavirus, the Minister of Education stressed: “We have mandated schools and offices in the Ministry to teach those who are unable to use smartphones or the Internet. Therefore, we must make sure that everyone benefits from educational services wherever they are, so education is not disrupted anywhere in the country.”
Haji Mirzaei also announced that the internet cost of Educational Network called Shad was free last year, and this year will also be free.
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