12m Going to School

So far an estimated 12 million students have enrolled in schools in the country for the upcoming academic year that starts on September 23, Mehr News Agency reported. Of the total, 7.49 million have registered in elementary schools, 2.9 million in lower secondary schools, and 1.9 million in upper secondary schools, deputy minister for secondary education, Ali Zarafshan, said.

Of the 679,000 students who will enter upper secondary school this year, 12.2% have chosen the math-physics major, 30.04% picked natural science as their major, and 27.1% will study humanities. Another 15% of students have enrolled for vocational training and the remaining 15% in manual skills (Kar-Danesh) schools.

In Iran, students study for 12 years before entering university. The twelve years are divided into two categories, primary and secondary, each of which is further separated into two 3-year periods, with the second three-year period of secondary school replacing high school. Students decide their high school major when they want to begin tenth grade.