TEHRAN – Benevolent people and charities have allocated 4.5 trillion rials (about $11.2 million) for building schools in the deprived province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

The figure is more than double compared with the 2.14 trillion rials allocated in the past year (March 2021-Mach 2022).

Over the past year and with the special attention of the officials, the budget for the renovation of schools in the province has grown by more than a hundred percent, IRNA quoted Meysam Lakzaei, the director general of the provincial department for development, renovation, and equipment of schools, as saying.

Moreover, the issue of public participation and the contribution of benefactors is also widely and comprehensively evident, he added.

The administration pays special attention to Sistan-Baluchestan, so in the past year it allocated 12 trillion rials to the expansion of educational spaces in the province, and the figure is expected to rise to 13.5 trillion rials for the current year, he explained.

More than 5 trillion rials of the budget has so far been allocated for the construction and renovation of schools, Lakzaei noted.

By December 21 (the end of the ninth Iranian calendar month), a number of 178 classrooms have been handed over to the Sistan-Baluchestan department of education for the use of students, he added.

“Some 1,800 other classrooms are being constructed in the province with the help of charities and benevolent people.”

Also, more than one thousand classrooms have been inaugurated in the province this year at the cost of 43 trillion rials, the official said.

This year, in order for students to benefit from smart learning electronic equipment, 500 classrooms in the province were equipped by benevolent people, he concluded.

Half of the schools across Iran are built with the participation of benefactors, Mohammad Reza Jafari, CEO of the School-Building Donors Association, has said.

About 40,000 donors are active and involved in building schools across the country, he stated, adding, over 49 percent of schools, amounting to 150,000 classrooms, in the country are built with the participation of school-building benefactors.

Construction of sports spaces, libraries, and developing smart schools are among the current needs in school construction, he highlighted.

School building benefactors have allotted a total of 34 trillion rials (nearly $130 million) to construct educational spaces across the country over the past [Iranian calendar] year (March 2021-March 2022), ISNA reported.

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

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

MG