Plans to Help Increase High School Enrollment

The current enrollment rate at the high school level (grades 10, 11, 12) is 87%, which means around 13% of students between the ages 15 and 17 have dropped out, said Ali Zarafshan, deputy minister for high school education.

Addressing a meeting on school dropouts at the Psychology Faculty at Tehran University, he said at the elementary level (grades 7, 8, 9) student registration is 94.3%. The Education Ministry has plans to raise enrollment rate to 100% for the first nine grades (including primary and elementary education) by the end of 2025.

“The ministry also has set a goal to increase the admission rate to 95% for high school education by 2025,” ISNA quoted him as saying.

Poverty and lack of availability and accessibility to schools are the most important reasons why students drop out. Cultural issues like early marriage in five provinces (fringe areas of Tehran, as well as in Sistan-Baluchestan, Khuzestan, West Azarbaijan, and East Azarbaijan) are the other reasons for the high dropout rate among high school students.

Zarafshan also pointed to 3,000 boarding schools across the country which have brought around 400,000 students under coverage, and said increasing the number of small schools in villages as well as boarding schools in cities and towns near villages can improve access to education.

Primary students account for 7.4 million, elementary school students 3.1 million, high school 2.2 million, and exceptional students 70,000, in the formal education system (not including 360,000 Afghan students).

  Unsatisfactory

Earlier, Javad Salehi Esfehani, an Iranian university professor in Virginia Polytechnic University and an economist, told the Persian-language newspaper ‘Donya-e- Eqtesad’ that the rate of enrollment in primary and elementary levels (basic education) “is acceptable and comparable with the rates in developed countries; however enrollment rate at the high school level is unsatisfactory.”

According to a recent survey by the Statistical Center of Iran, 94.7% of rural boys aged 7-10 attend schools. The coverage rate is 86.6% at the age of 11-14; but the rate falls steeply to 56.5% for 15-17-year-old rural boys. Education in Iran is compulsory till grade 8.  Esfehani believes that increasing the number of quality vocational programs and schools can help address the problem, as many students from low-income families usually have no plan to enter universities after high school. “The main function of high schools is to prepare students for universities.”