There are no accurate figures on the number of out-of-school children, although “we estimate there are four million children who are deprived of education in the country,” said Mohammad Mahdizadeh, deputy head of the Literacy Movement Organization (LMO).
In the past two years, 143,000 children have not been registered in schools and in the past year, 67,000 students have been excluded from primary education, Iran Newspaper quoted him as saying.
Sistan-Baluchestan province’s share in the number of dropouts at primary school level is 20% due to high levels of illiteracy among parents. Studies show that a child who grows up in a home with at least one illiterate parent is twice as likely to be illiterate.
The Majlis (parliament) Research Center says 3 million in the age group 6-18 have not been registered in any school or have dropped out for various reasons, while unofficial sources estimate the number to be 6 million.
Currently, there are more than 12.4 million students in the age group 6 to 18, of whom 7.2 million are primary students, 2 million secondary and 3.2 million are high school students. This indicates that 75% of children have the opportunity to graduate from high school.
Illiteracy has many harmful consequences for individuals including unemployment and lower income, reduced access to lifelong learning, professional development, and low self-esteem.
Without the basic tools necessary for achieving their goals, individuals without adequate levels of literacy, cannot be involved fully and on an equal basis in social discourse.
