TEHRAN – The Organization for Special Needs Education has allocated 19 billion rials (about $38,000) for equipping libraries at special needs schools across the country.

A special needs school is one that provides an inclusive learning environment for students with a wide variety of learning exceptionalities.

It attempts to ensure that each child, despite their learning exceptionality, is provided with the opportunities to succeed academically.

More than 28,000 volumes of books have been procured for special needs schools in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, ISNA reported.

In the past school year which started on September 23, 2022, some 83,000 special needs students enrolled in schools with an average of 50 students in each school.

Rise in school building

The Organization for Development, Renovation, and Equipment of Schools has announced that the number of newly built schools across the country has increased by 104 percent over the past two years.

On a daily basis, 47 new classrooms have been constructed all over the country during the past two years, IRNA reported.

On July 11, the 25th conference on honoring school-building benefactors was held at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Tehran.

Addressing the conference, First Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber said investing in education and manpower training is the root and basis of any country's development, and this starts from schools, IRNA reported.

Last year (March 2022-March 2023), benefactors donated more than 160 trillion rials (about $320 million) to build and equip schools across the country, he added.

Education Minister Reza-Morad Sahraei said for his part that by September 23 (the start of the school year), some 2,000 educational projects will be implemented and more than 10,000 classrooms will be constructed, 46 percent of which will be done in cooperation with benefactors.

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 that 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.”

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.

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.

MG