TEHRAN – By the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20), benefactors are expected to donate 80 trillion rials (about $200 million) for building schools across the country.

Benefactors have so far donated 46 trillion rials (about $115 million), ISNA quoted Hamidreza Khanmohammadi, the director of the Organization for Development, Renovation, and Equipping Schools, as saying.

By the end of the year, the figure is expected to reach 80 trillion rials (about $200 million), he added.

Last year, benefactors donated 34 trillion rials (about $85 million) and the administration also allocated 31 trillion rials (about $77 million) for building schools, he highlighted.

He went on to say that 13 percent of schools need to be retrofitted and 6 percent (33 thousand classrooms) need to be demolished and reconstructed.

Some 300 trillion rials (about $750 million) is needed to reconstruct the schools, he noted.

Referring to the issue of ‘future schools’, he said: “When we build a school, it should be used for at least 50 years. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the educational needs of the next generations in building a school.”

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 stressed.

On January 10, the first national event of future schools was held 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 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 highlighted 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.

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.

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.

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

MG