TEHRAN – Mehraein, the first hospital school in Iran, was inaugurated at Ali- Asghar Children’s Hospital in Tehran on Thursday.

The hospital school aims to help children regain academic progress during their periods of hospitalization or rehabilitation.

It has been established by Ayandehsazan Toseh Mehraein Institution, an NGO which supports children who are being treated in hospitals.

“I thought about establishment of a hospital school for children when I was a trainee at Mahak Hospital,” the managing director of the institution Fatemeh Abdollali told Khabaronline.

Abdollali, who is a graduate of educational technology, said that teaching hospitalized children need a special section and none of the children’s hospitals in Iran has such a facility.

She said that she had tried to establish schools in different hospitals and medical centers, however none of them accepted her offer.

“Finally I submitted my offer to health minister Hassan Qazizadeh-Hashemi and he encouraged me to start the project in one of hospitals,” she explained.

She said that the director of Ali-Asghar Children’s Hospital, Ms. Elham Talachian, welcomed the idea.

“The hospital allocated 60 square meters of area to the project and we equipped that with educational facilities, toys and books,” Abdollali explained.

She said that the Mehraein hospital school is a non-governmental center and runs through fundraising.

“All the teachers are volunteers. The teachers who work with us are all expert,” she explained.

“We are in touch with the schools in which the hospitalized have enrolled and ask them to provide us with educational plans of the schools,” she said.

Abdollali said that the Ministry of Education allows the hospital to take final exams from the hospitalized schoolchildren.

She said that the hospital school also holds programs on family resilience and wellbeing for parents of the children.

The hospital uses a remedial education method which is assigned to assist students in order to achieve expected competencies in core academic skills such as literacy and numeracy.

Abdollali said that the hospital school needs the financial support of benefactors to expand and increase such centers in the country.

SB/MG