TEHRAN – A total of 6 trillion rials (around $142 million at the official rate of 42,000 rials) was allocated to school construction over the first seven months of the current [Iranian calendar] year (March 21-October 22), Mehrollah Rakhshanimehr, director of the Organization for Development, Renovation, and Equipment, said.

In the Iranian calendar year 1382 (March 2003- March 2004), the number of schools in need of reconstruction and retrofitting was 70 percent, but 12 years later, it reduced to 30 percent, which has reached 19.5 percent over the past four years.

He went on to note that this year, there has been a significant increase in budget for renovation of schools, IRNA reported.

A total of 51 trillion rials (nearly $1.2 billion) was proposed for school renovation in the budget bill, which is 21 percent higher than that of the previous year, Rakhshanimehr said.

107,000 schools need renovation nationwide

There are some 107,000 schools nationwide with 530,000 classes, 160,000 of which are dilapidated, not meeting safety standards, accounting for 30 percent of the schools nationwide.

Rakhshanimehr said in August 2020 that some 30 percent of the country’s schools have been constructed by school-building benefactors and there are 450 school-building charities in Iran.

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

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

The Organization for Development, Renovation, and Equipping Schools started operating in the Iranian calendar year 1396 (March 2017-March 2018), which received a budget of 8.5 trillion rials (about $200 million).

FB/MG