TEHRAN - The first national event of future schools will be held on Tuesday with the aim of promoting the use of knowledge-based technologies in schools.

The Organization for Development, Renovation, and Equipment of Schools in cooperation with Barekat Foundation has organized the event in line with the current year’s slogan set by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as “The Year of Production: Knowledge-Based and Job-Creating”.

The event will highlight the role of technology in modernizing schools as well as educational and sports spaces.

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.

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 further highlighted.

School building benefactors have allotted a total of 34 trillion rials (nearly $85 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.

Due to the promotion of the culture of participation in school construction, school-building donors allotted 39 trillion rials last year, compared with 170 billion rials in 1998 when the Association of School-Building Donors was established, Education Minister Yousef Nouri has said.

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

Since 2017, the government has contributed more than 60 trillion rials to school-building donors, he added.

The "Brick-by-brick" national plan started in the year 1399 (March 2020 – March 2021), aiming to attract public participation for school construction in deprived areas even by buying a brick.

In December 2022, Reza Asadifar, an official with the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology said currently 7882 knowledge-based firms are operating in the country.

The fields of biotechnology, agriculture, food industries, chemical technologies aircraft maintenance, steel, gas, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and medicine, oil, electronics and telecommunications, information technology, and computer software are among the sectors in which researchers in technology companies are working.

MG