TEHRAN — An official at the Education Ministry announced on Tuesday that groundbreaking project for construction of one thousand schools in poor regions of Iran is underway with collaboration of Barakat Foundation, Mehr reported.

The project gets off the ground with the decree issued by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Morteza Raesi said.

Morteza Raesi said that out of total 105,000 schools in Iran, stretching over 95,000 square meters, 10,000 operate double shifts, meaning that Iran is short of schools by 10 percent.

Under the project plan, the construction of 140 schools, with 844 classrooms, were completed and inaugurated on Tuesday, and on January 23, the new school year in Iran, 18,750 students will enjoy attending classes.

Barakat foundation has spent more than 55.5 billion tomans ($ 18.5 mil) on the construction of the schools, he said.

The construction project has started years ago and will be ongoing in the future, he said.

MQ/MJ