TEHRAN – Some 10 percent of schools constructed by benefactors across the country have been funded by Iranians living outside the country, Nasser Ghofli, the director of the School-Building Donors Association, has stated.

Empathy and cooperation of the Organization for Development, Renovation, and Equipping Schools and charitable school-building community has become a successful model in the country, he highlighted.

About 10 percent of charitable schools are built with the participation of charities abroad. This is a valuable asset, which should be promoted, he stated, IRNA reported on Wednesday.

Some 30 percent of the country’s schools have been constructed by school-building benefactors. He further stressed the need to use new technologies in the construction of schools in order to speed up the implementation of projects and reduce costs.

Contributions of school-building donors have grown well in recent years, which is accelerating the process of school construction, Ghofli stated a week ago.

Over the past year, a sum of 30 trillion rials (about $700 million at the official rate of 42,000 rials) has been allocated to school construction and renovation by the benefactors, he explained.

According to Ghofli, 400 school-building charities have been registered in the country so far.

Mehrollah Rakhshanimehr, director of the Organization for Development, Renovation, and Equipping, said in August 2020 that some 30 percent of the country’s schools have been constructed by school-building benefactors; there are 450 school-building charities in Iran.

In line with the education reform plan, people who have a popular reputation are being invited as ambassadors to attract public participation for school construction even by buying a brick.

Iran has many school-building benefactors amounting to 650,000 people inside and 1,000 people outside the country.

There are some 107,000 schools nationwide with 530,000 classes, 160,000 of which are dilapidated, not meeting safety standards. Some 30 percent of the schools nationwide are old, of which some 12 percent must be completely rebuilt and 18 percent must be retrofitted.

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