TEHRAN – Through financing 110 billion rials (about 184 million dollars) over the past three years, the share of benefactors in building schools has increased by 300 percent.

The benefactors have undertaken half of the constructed schools, ISNA quoted Education Minister Reza-Morad Sahraei as saying.

If the same trend continues, constructing schools in areas where the per capita educational space is lower than the national standard, i.e. 5.30 square meters, will naturally become a priority, he said.

Over the past three years, more than 7,000 schools with 32,000 classrooms were built in underprivileged areas, the official stressed.

The fact that 64 percent of schools are constructed in rural areas and underprivileged communities highlights efforts to expand educational equity and opportunities, Sahraei further noted.

Semi-finished projects

A sum of 60 trillion rials (around $100 million) has been allocated to completing semi-finished educational projects by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2025), an official with the Ministry of Education has said.

During the late President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration, 33,000 classrooms were built and retrofitted with benefactors contributing to half of the funding, IRNA quoted Hamid-Reza Khanmohammadi as saying.
Referring to the construction of schools for Refugees, the official said  111 schools have been built by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the past 10 years.

Highlighting that 600,000 foreign students are currently utilizing the educational capacities of Iran’s schools, Khanmohammadi said 22 schools are currently being constructed, and 6 projects are proposed in challenging locations, which are under review.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees should help construct up to 50 schools per year, he stressed.

Rise in newly-built schools

In August 2023, the Organization for Development, Renovation, and Equipment of Schools announced that the number of newly-built schools across the country has increased by 104 percent over the past two years

On a daily basis, 47 new classrooms have been constructed all over the country during the past two years.

About 40,000 donors are active and involved in building schools across the country, said Mohammad Reza Jafari, CEO of the School-Building Donors Association.

He went on to say that 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,  Jafari stressed.

On July 11, 2023, the 25th conference on honoring school-building benefactors was held at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Tehran.

The Majlis (Iranian Parliament) has approved a special budget to support building schools nationwide.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Education should spend one percent of the revenues of state-run companies and the net profits of banks and private institutions to build schools in deprived areas in line with the goal of promoting educational justice.

MT/MG