TEHRAN – Some 24 percent out-of-school children are from financially struggling families residing in deprived areas, Seyyed Javad Hosseini, caretaker for Ministry of Education has stated.

It is essential to form a system to identify the youth who quitted education and return them back to schools particularly girls and women, he suggested, Fars reported on Tuesday.

Deprived areas should be considered a priority in terms of education provision, he highlighted, suggesting that NGOs and volunteer individuals also can help us providing school dropouts with education.

Currently, there are 15,000 schools educating some 380,000 illiterate youth and adults, he noted.

Former education minister Mohammad Bat’haei said in September 2018 that in the last school year (September 2017- June 2018), despite all the efforts of the responsible bodies, there have been some 142,000 out-of-school children, 31,910 of whom have been enrolled in primary schools.

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