TEHRAN –Educational spaces nationwide have been living in bitter silence for about 18 months due to the coronavirus pandemic, but school bells rang again on Saturday as signs of the deadly disease are going to diminish across the country.

Each year, Iranian students start the school year on September 23, which marks the first day of autumn on the Iranian calendar, after three-month summer vacation.

The back-to-school ceremony is officially inaugurated by the president each year, as he rings the bells in a symbolic gesture at a chosen school.

All educational centers in Iran have been closed since February 2020.Today, in different parts of the country and in the schools that were ready to receive students, the back-to-school bell rang so that the educational units could officially start their activities.

In Tehran, the ceremony was held in the presence of President Ebrahim Raeisi at a school in Shahr-e Rey, the southern part of Tehran.

Due to the vaccination and the reduction of transmission, schools are gradually reopened since September, and about 15 million students across the country can benefit from face-to-face education with strict observance of health protocols during school hours.

Considering that there are currently 94,449 state-run schools in the country, of which 44,363 have less than 75 students, it is possible to open schools with a limited number of students.

Education in schools with high student density and populated classrooms are also supposed to be followed both online and in-person so that on special days and with the necessary restrictions in accordance with the health protocols, classes are held in person.

Alireza Kazemi, the caretaker of the Ministry of Education, said that the new school year has started with the three slogans of "Continuing Education, Improving Quality and Ensuring Health" and all the necessary planning has been done for a gradual reopening with healthy students and teachers.

With the start of school operations, principals have been tasked with deciding how first-graders should attend school, which include 1,634,383 this year.

Iran Television School

All educational centers in Iran have been closed since February 2020.

In order for students to keep in touch with their studies, the Ministry of Education launched a homegrown mobile application on April 9, called SHAD, providing students with distance learning programs. More than 60 percent of students and 94 percent of teachers attended 64 percent of classes through the SHAD app, whose acronym in Persian translates as the Students Education Network.

Moreover, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) also began to broadcast televised educational programs on a daily basis after school closures.

The reopening bell of "Iran Television School " also rang at the beginning of the academic year.

Teaching in the TV school is one of the best and strongest presentations, despite the most experienced teachers, and it can be said that one of the best things done during the pandemic was to "establish educational justice" through creating a "TV school".

FB/MG