Sistan and Baluchestan province suffers from numerous educational problems. These problems can be seen in the areas of hardware, infrastructure, and software, and unfortunately, instead of allocating more funds to reduce these problems and improve the educational situation, officials have reduced the necessary budget for education and training in the 2018 budget. Clearly, with this budget, it is not possible to solve the educational problems in Sistan and Baluchestan province. This shows that there is no will to improve the educational situation and promote the growth and development of the province.

More than 98% of the budget of the Ministry of Education is spent on current expenses and salaries. According to published statistics, the funds provided by philanthropists are twice the amount allocated by the Ministry of Education through the Organization for Renovation, Development, and Equipping of Schools, and this difference is significant.

The field of education and training is a very broad field and one of the indicators that this province is far behind other provinces is the educational index in education and training and the low quality of education.

Alim Yarmohammadi, representative of the people of Zahedan and deputy chairman of the Construction Commission in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, had previously stated that the problems in Sistan and Baluchestan province are a result of the previous government’s negligence and mismanagement. He regretfully mentioned that despite the efforts of the Islamic Republic, these issues have persisted and those responsible for the education sector have failed to allocate sufficient budget and achieve balanced development in the country. Even if they were pursuing this goal, they were not successful.

According to this representative, in the current year, in the city of Zahedan, the capital of the province, 2000 people will be deprived of education due to lack of educational space and shortage of classrooms. In Sistan and Baluchestan province, there are 120,000 people who are unable to continue their education due to lack of educational space and classrooms, and it is regrettable that the authorities have not been able to solve this problem.

The largest population of survivors of education belongs to Sistan and Baluchestan, and the failure to achieve educational justice in areas such as student ratio, recruitment of specialized human resources including staff, teachers, construction of educational spaces, etc. has caused a kind of discrimination and double injustice towards the region, which undoubtedly has consequences for the system and society.

The shortage of thousands of teachers, severe fatigue of schools and the possibility of their destruction, lack of educational and welfare facilities, lack of educational spaces or lack of access to educational centers in many villages, and financial inability of families are among the most important problems of students and education in Sistan and Baluchestan province and other deprived areas of the country.

The weakness in employing specialized and experienced human resources in the field of education in this region has led to a significant decline in academic performance. Most of the employees in this province are non-native individuals who are transferred to the central and northern regions after a short period of time, using various excuses. Despite the shortage of human resources in the southern regions of the province, we are faced with an excess of human resources in the central region, and in the southern regions, we rely on conscripted teachers or hired personnel who do not have expertise in education. This has caused many problems and greatly increased the gap in performance indicators.

According to the statements of the director general of education in the province, the shortage of 12,000 teachers in the province is compensated by purchasing service forces, teacher soldiers, opposing shifts, and inviting retired teachers to work; there are 2,960 purchasing service forces and 800 teacher soldiers in the province, which is the highest number of teacher soldiers among the provinces of the country.

The standard class size should be close to 25 students, while this number is between 35 to 45 in underprivileged areas. These numbers show a significant gap in terms of lack of educational space, the existence of mud and straw classrooms, containers and tents, and shortage of teaching staff compared to the standards.

Shortage of 3,000 teachers and more than 5,700 classrooms in the cities of Chabahar, Nikshahr, Konarak, and Qasr-e Qand is causing concern, while the port city of Chabahar, which has national and international significance and its economic free zone is thriving, has the worst educational conditions and holds the record for the lowest educational indicators in the country.

Given the unstable economic and living conditions of families, the decrease in student per capita in these areas is concerning. Currently, there are difficulties in purchasing school necessities such as water, electricity, and telephone expenses, paper, oil, heater, light, classroom windows, chalk, blackboard, markers, whiteboard, etc. These issues put financial pressure on parents as students are expected to cover these expenses.

Most families living in suburban areas and villages suffer from malnutrition due to very low income, and they struggle to survive with minimal subsidies. The removal of milk and nutrition from schools has caused some students to leave class and suffer from weakness and illness.

The most important reason for students in Sistan and Baluchestan province to drop out of school is economic problems, decline in the quality of education, and lack of motivation to continue their studies. In many rural and suburban areas, students also face difficulty in accessing higher levels of education. Unfortunately, due to mismanagement and lack of planning by officials, this province has the highest dropout rate in the country and holds the first rank in this regard.

Regarding the statistics of dropouts, the rate of girls dropping out of school is much higher than boys. Due to the mixed classes in rural areas, it is not possible for girls to continue their education in separate schools in some villages at higher levels than elementary school, and for this reason, girls are left behind in continuing their education.

Habibullah Deh Mardeh, representative of the people of Zabol, Zahak, and Hirmand in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, admitted that the problem affecting Sistan and Baluchestan province in the field of education is not limited to the past year or two, but has accumulated over the years and has led to severe educational problems for the province. In the past, in the late 1990s, the number of graduates in mathematics and physics in the province was close to 70 people. This number is a tragedy for a province with a population of nearly 2 million, and as long as the government and officials do not improve the educational infrastructure, this province will continue to face educational problems.

Many of the successes achieved by native students and students of the province show the existence of brilliant talents among them that need to be nurtured and cultivated. Experience has shown that native managers, with more dedication and sense of responsibility, can help students achieve higher levels of success. Prominent examples of these successes include top rankings in the national entrance exam, participation in national and international arenas, the first doctor without borders of the United Nations, the first pilot of the province, and so on.

Alireza Rashki, the Director General of Renovation, Development, and Equipping of Schools in the province, had previously announced that so far, the allocation of funds for the educational justice sector has been zero percent and the educational sector should receive 100 percent of the funds.

Seyed Mohammad Bat’haei, in the Supreme Council of Education and Training of Sistan and Baluchestan, had said that Sistan and Baluchestan is ranked last among all provinces in the country. He stated, “I am ashamed in front of the students of Sistan and Baluchestan. This province is far less developed compared to the province before it, and there are many problems in education and training. If the current situation does not change, these problems will remain in the future as well. Sistan and Baluchestan is our priority because when we rank the provinces of the country in terms of facilities and the state of education and training, West Azerbaijan is one of the weakest provinces. However, the gap between the indicators of Sistan and Baluchestan and West Azerbaijan is very large. If we can bring the state of education and training in Sistan and Baluchestan to the level of West Azerbaijan, we have achieved a great

According to statistics provided by officials, Sistan and Baluchestan has the lowest per capita educational space in the country, as the average educational space in the country is 5.34 square meters, while in Sistan and Baluchestan it is only 3.11 square meters. To reach the national average, it is necessary to build an additional 11,000 new classrooms with a total area of one million square meters of educational space in Sistan and Baluchestan.

Concealment and presentation of contradictory statistics regarding children who have dropped out of school is a serious obstacle in proper and desirable planning, as stated by former member of the Teachers’ Guild, Ahmad Madadi. There is a deliberate effort to not publish or even collect some statistics. I believe one of the statistics that is not allowed to be collected by the Ministry of Education is the number of children who have dropped out of school. We do not have accurate statistics and this problem also leads to planning issues, as experts who do not have access to accurate statistics cannot plan accordingly to educational needs.

Over the past years, many government officials have promised to solve the educational problems and issues in the province and achieve educational justice. These promises are easily accessible through a simple search, yet despite these slogans and more than 40 years since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which promised to eliminate inequality, justice and development, reduce class differences, alleviate deprivation, and distribute facilities and services fairly, educational problems still persist alongside other issues and it seems that there is no will to solve them.