Education Reforms Should Be Compatible With FERD

A document endorsed by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution will serve as a roadmap for any reforms to be undertaken in the education sector, the council agreed in a meeting on Tuesday.

The decision was meant to settle a row between President Hassan Rouhani and his political opponents over a UN education plan that he signed two years ago.

Formally referred to as Education 2030, the document turned into a hot topic in the run-up to the May 19 presidential elections, in which Rouhani won a decisive victory.

 "After a review of the 2030 plan, it was unanimously agreed in the SCCR meeting that documents approved by the council, parliament and other legal authorities would form the basis for action in the country. For the education sector, it will be as per rules enshrined in the Fundamental Education Reform Document, a national document approved by the SRCC," president.ir reported.  

FERD took ten years to finalize in 2014.

The action plan outlines a basis for education reforms and a roadmap for the Education Ministry in the sixth five-year economic development plan (2017-2022).

The 2030 initiative has been proposed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to help "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all," one of the 17 goals set in the Sustainable Development Agenda signed by all the 193 UN members in 2015.

Rouhani vowed in an earlier meeting of the cultural council last month that his government would safeguard Islamic values and cultural norms while implementing the UNESCO plan, in an attempt to mollify the critics who have denounced the global initiative as being in "conflict with Islamic values".

Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has publicly rejected the document for promoting and dictating "decadent western culture".