TEHRAN — Some 370,000 foreign students, mostly Afghan nationals, will receive free of charge schooling in Iran for the current school year of 2017-18.

Iran is trying to create an equal educational opportunity for all Afghan nationals similar to Iranians regardless of their immigration status for some years now. 

However, the time consuming process of registering foreign national students have sparked protest in the social media over the past few weeks. On Thursday in response to the protests Iran’s Education Minister Mohammad Bat’haei tweeted that some 370,000 students have registered for the upcoming school year so far.  

“I fulfilled my promise, 370,000 foreign nationals were not kept from school, we are doing our best to register the remaining students [before the school year begins],” Bat’haie wrote on his twitter account. 

“Paving the way for foreign nationals’ education in the country is of major cultural and political importance,” Icana news agency quoted Bat’haei as saying.

“Those foreign students who have studied in our country can later play a key role in cultural diffusion by spreading Iranian cultural beliefs in other countries,” he added.

The minister further highlighted that according to the decree issued by the supreme leader, all foreign nationals, even those who have no identification and are living in Iran illegally, can go to schools in the country.       

Despite limited international funds Iran is seriously striving to give free of charge schooling to all foreign nationals living in the country, he noted. 

MQ/MG