“Wood is the economy and politics for students.”

The average grade of students in the academic year 1400 has been announced to be around ten to eleven and a half; a grade that has been unprecedented in the past decade and indicates a severe decline in academic performance and a decrease in their literacy level. On the other hand, in the same academic year, according to unofficial statistics, between three to five million people dropped out of school. All of these news are a warning sign for the educational situation in the country. That’s why we turned to Mohammad Reza Niknejad, an expert in the field of education, to find out the reasons for the decline in academic performance and dropping out of school among Iranian students.

According to Alireza Manadi, the head of the Education Committee of the Parliament, the average grade of students in the academic year 1400 has been announced as 11.5 and teachers have been blamed for this decline. (1) However, the national average grade has never been higher than 14 in the past five years, but this year it has experienced a significant decline compared to previous years. What factors do you think have contributed to the decrease in the national average grade of students?

Analyzing issues related to the individual is not one-dimensional. As the subject of education is also related to humans, it is not exempt from this rule. Education in Iran has gone through a process in the past two to three decades that has historical roots. The foundations of education in Iran are based on a superficial education. Evaluations in education have all been based on grades, averages, and exams that could not measure the quality of education and were not aimed at quality assessment. The same foundations that were laid about a hundred years ago are still being used and have been the same in the world as well.

Therefore, education focuses more on quantitative and measurable assessments. Qualitative assessments are very difficult, complex, and time-consuming, and are used in advanced countries. When different social and cultural factors are involved in the assessment, it also affects education. Education used to be a gateway for social mobility. Families would spend money on their children’s education, and the government, as a responsible institution, provided free education to create opportunities for middle and lower-class families.

One of the factors contributing to the decline in grades is the blocking of this path. Some people can progress in this process and reach high levels and educational achievements that they have invested in. These individuals come from limited families who are generally in the upper two or three deciles of society in terms of economy and spend money on their children’s education. They achieve success in these quantitative evaluations and ultimately can find their way to university. However, the rest of the lower economic deciles cannot afford the cost nor have access to this path. For example, unemployment cannot be ignored in this regard. The fact that students do not have much motivation to go through this transition through education. There was a time when the number of educated individuals in a family was limited and those individuals could find government jobs or similar positions, secure their lives, and achieve a socially and economically acceptable position. However, today in every family there are several educated individuals who are either unemployed or their job has no relation to their education.

The student sees these problems and their motivation for studying and learning decreases. These individuals do not have internal motivation and usually continue their education under family pressure, so they do not study. Another point is that schools hide this educational decline from elementary school; even with minimal evaluations, this inadequacy is hidden until the twelfth year of education, where there is a final exam. The only accurate evaluation and education in Iran is this one exam that is held after twelve years, called the final exam; meaning that it is in the twelfth year that the real grades of students are shown.

In addition, teachers in schools are under pressure, both officially and unofficially; this pressure is not only from the school administrators. It is an educational pressure that may not be very obvious. Teachers must raise their passing rate and if their class grades are not high enough, they may not have a place in that school the following year. The exams that are administered in this way hide educational deficiencies until twelfth grade, when the true grades are revealed and the averages show their decline.

Quantitative evaluation is an assessment that is not well-established in today’s education, but is still involved in education and training; however, the decline in education is not one-dimensional, even if it is considered small. Currently, economic issues, employment, social and cultural pressures are also involved in this decline in education; of course, educational issues also have an impact, but this issue is not solely the responsibility of teachers. Teachers do their job within the framework that has been asked of them. It should be noted that teachers are one of the pillars of education.

Education in our country has become a class-based process. Just recently, it was announced that there are thousands of students with a grade point average of twenty across the country. When they wanted to consider the entrance exam grade point average, one of the officials announced that there are thousands of students with a grade point average of twenty in the final exams and it is not possible to accept university admissions based on their grade point average due to their large number.

Currently, they have changed the process of final exams in a way that even if a student’s average is below 10, they will still pass. This means that a student may have a grade below 7 in one subject, but have two subjects with grades above 7 and the rest of their grades above 10. Their average will be below 10, but they will still pass. The indicators that existed before cannot determine a student’s passing of the diploma threshold. Therefore, these indicators have been lowered in order to increase the outputs of education, which also affects the quality of education at higher levels.

There is no free and universal education in Iran.

Given the financial situation, can it be said that free and universal education is disappearing and only those who can afford to pay for their education are able to study?

From the Constitutional Revolution until now, free and universal education has been among the goals of those who were concerned with education. In the early days of the revolution in February 1979, this desire also existed and the revolutionaries criticized the class-based education system that existed during the Pahlavi era. However, this does not mean that at that time, universal education was in a good state. If we look at it relatively, at that time, education was more universal, but in the revolution, Article 30 of the Constitution was considered as an advanced principle, and today some people want to change it. Those who are after more profit say that this principle is for that time and needs to be changed. Although due to social resistances, they have not been able to achieve anything yet; it can even be said that there is resistance at the middle and upper levels of the Islamic Republic who still defend this principle. Universal education was one of the initial goals of the revolutionaries, but gradually

In countries with a liberal economy, privatization of education is the latest frontier that is being privatized and is still a very controversial issue; including in America; but in Iran, the first place they went to privatize was education. These individuals were unable to change Article 30 due to resistance from within and outside the government, but they somehow managed to bypass it. Today, they justify it by saying that some people want their children to study more. One of the deputies of education has compared the privatization of education to the rationing of gasoline and has said that those who have money can use more gasoline, so it is the same in education. Comparing education to rationing gasoline is disturbing and very audacious; but in any case, they have bypassed Article 30 and as a teacher, I can claim that there is no free education in Iran; because education does not even provide a per capita amount for students, even in rural schools.

Today, for over a decade, the per capita student budget does not belong to many schools at all, and in this way, school administrators have been left to take money in any way they can, and without this money taken from families, there is no possibility of managing schools. I know that this money is taken from families in rural schools, from ten to fifteen thousand tomans, and up to about one hundred million tomans in government schools that exist in major cities such as Tehran; that is, they have left the hands of school officials to manage schools as they wish. Given this situation, it can be said that there is no free education in Iran. Education today only gives teachers their salaries, which we see it does not even give them that. Teachers are always protesting, and just last year, more than fourteen gatherings were held in the streets by teachers who wanted an increase in their salaries and a better living and social status. The government shirks its responsibilities and has made education

Last year, the government released a shameful statistic that the top three thousand students in the nationwide entrance exam were from the top three economic deciles. This year, they also reported that thirty-three of the top forty students in the exam were from regular non-government schools, and only one student from a regular government school was able to achieve a high rank in the exam. It is possible for someone to claim that schools like Samad or Tizhoushan are government schools, but none of these schools accept students without payment. We do not have any exceptionally talented students who can study in these schools without paying. Many of those who study in these schools are not inherently intelligent at a comprehensive level. These are the individuals whose families have invested in their education and essentially “doped” them, starting the race a few meters ahead of regular government school students and naturally reaching the finish line sooner and succeeding. Education in Iran has become heavily class-based. Statistics, numbers, and personal experiences of teachers confirm

From grade-selling to pressuring teachers to improve grades.

In light of your statements regarding the topic of quantitative evaluation and the changes that have occurred in the educational structure in recent years, we have witnessed that elementary school has changed to a six-year period and grades have been removed from this period; therefore, the average of the middle school period is only calculated as the average. Has these changes had any impact on the quality of education at least in the elementary school period and what effect does it have on the middle school period?

In Iran, there is a hidden trend of concealing the decline. It should be noted that the removal of grades in elementary school is a global experience and the education system in Iran should also utilize this global experience, which I also defend. In the first nine years, which is almost a general education, students must pass this period regardless of their grades and how acceptance works, but passing this period does not mean that they can pass it with any quality. Students should be evaluated descriptively, which is close to qualitative evaluations. The teacher should evaluate students in this regard.

But in Iran, teachers, schools, and even principals are under pressure from educational districts and then from higher authorities like the Ministry of Education. There is a hierarchical pressure for acceptance rates and average grades. When acceptance rates and grades are used as criteria for the work of a teacher, principal, school, or district, widespread cheating occurs. This even exists in a place like America, when liberal and democratic governments are in power, and in some cases, they are taken to court for cheating. Wherever education is evaluated based on numbers and schools are compared, an unrealistic and incorrect evaluation arises; for example, a teacher gives a grade of eight or nine – apart from their moral and human aspect – in order to have a higher average compared to the neighboring class, or a school raises grades due to competition with another school. This competition is completely unhealthy and there is no real evaluation process.

A few years ago, I wanted to work in a good and high-level public school. They made a contract with me that the average of one of the grades should be, for example, from 19.5 to 19.9; meaning that if one student for any reason did not study, the overall class average would decrease and I could no longer work in that school for the next year. So I had no choice but to give grades to students who did not study.

Today, in elementary school, there are no grades and the evaluation is descriptive. Students enter the first year of high school with all its educational features and enter the unhealthy cycle of competition. This cycle of competition and the change in the educational environment lowers the quality of evaluation for students; for example, a student who had a score of twenty in science in the first year of high school, receives a five in physics in the second year of high school, because they did not receive a real grade in that period.

A few years ago, one of the deputies of the Minister of Education announced a number for the average grade, which showed that the average grades of non-profit schools are much lower compared to other schools. Non-governmental and non-profit schools reject students with average and below average entrance exam scores and accept students who are strong in terms of economic, social, and academic backgrounds. Naturally, they should have a better result in terms of grades and their students should have an easier time getting accepted in the university entrance exam. However, due to the issue of grade selling in non-profit schools, their final grades are still low. These schools are not immune to this problem and it must be said that a significant part of this decline in grades, which was announced by the head of the Education Commission, is related to these schools.

Promoting the ideology of the ruling government in schools has led to a decline in education.

What impact does the intense pursuit of ideological education in schools by the government have on students’ motivation to study and what damages has it caused to education?

As a physics teacher who has been close to students for thirty years, I can claim that there is a level of hatred towards this type of education. The most repulsive subjects in high school are religious and Arabic lessons; especially Arabic. This ideology that the government is pursuing has largely failed to meet the social, economic, political, and cultural needs of society. Students are also turning away from it. These ideological teachings are directly and strongly pursued in a series of books such as religious lessons, and indirectly exist in other books such as literature, history, and even specialized subjects like physics; for example, a hadith is used to confirm Newton’s second law or a verse from the Quran is present.

This type of education, despite the intentions of officials and government, creates disillusionment; even if someone wants to be in solidarity with this government, they must admit that the method they are using is toxic for that ideology. These teachings directly and indirectly create disillusionment in education, and this disillusionment in turn has a general effect on students’ aversion to education. Perhaps there is no metric to measure its impact, but it is definitely one of the influential factors.

Young citizens who are looking for work and income, due to economic inefficiency and the promotion of occupations such as profiteering and a decrease in production, see the path of education as long. In the end, those who study may have twenty to thirty percent hope of finding a job related to their education and give up studying.

Economic, social, and cultural failures, accompanied by ideological teachings, have created a tendency to escape from studying. Students lack motivation to continue their education, but families are still trapped in the wrong teachings they had in the past and see education as the path to success. Students do not follow this trend, but many still push themselves to continue their studies. On the other hand, the space for online businesses has also been provided, which has reduced this motivation, but some families are still trapped in the educational culture of the past hundred years.

Most girls are forced to drop out of school.

Considering the statistics of dropouts among students and the impact of commercialization of education on this issue, as well as the increase in children who do not enter school from the first grade, what other factors contribute to students dropping out of school besides the commercialization of education?

The overall statistics announced by the government for last year showed that around 900,000 people were dropouts; however, this number is not accurate and some estimate it to be around three to five million people. I have heard the number of three million people a lot, which may be a cautious estimate that is being announced.

Educational coverage in primary school in the country is almost 100%; meaning that there is a school for all children at the age of entering school in the country. These schools in tribal areas or remote villages have multi-grade classes and no student is left without a school or teacher. Educational yearbooks also did not report this coverage for primary school less than 98 or 100 percent, but in the first secondary level, this coverage reaches 90 percent, which is the fault of the government. The discussion of this type of educational coverage means the government’s neglect of its duty; something that it should implement but cannot. In the second secondary level, this coverage reaches about 82 percent. This decline is mostly in the girls’ section.

In the past few days, a newsletter has been published on social media about a school in a remote village that used to enroll both boys and girls until last year, but this year they are not accepting girls due to early puberty. Now, families have gathered signatures and complained to higher authorities to either build a school for girls or continue with the previous process. Such incidents happening in this government are strange. This issue is an example of hindering education.

On the other hand, in areas where there are mixed and multi-grade classes, in higher levels of education such as first and second grade of high school, due to cultural and social concerns from families and authorities, the desire to form mixed classes diminishes and those who are affected by this are mostly girls. Therefore, the majority of dropouts in the issue of girls’ education are girls.

I have examined the educational systems of twelve advanced countries. These countries, including Japan, Finland, Canada, Singapore, and South Korea, have support structures in place. Families of students who are in need of economic, social, and cultural assistance are supported by the school and the government provides aid to them. There are also funds in schools that support these students and their families receive financial assistance. The situation of these students is constantly monitored and they are provided with resources to prevent them from dropping out. This structure does not exist in Iran.

The main factor in staying in school is economic difficulties.

Apart from educational, ideological, cultural, and social pressures, we also have an economic problem that is the most important factor in dropping out of school. When economic pressure increases, the issue of dropping out of school becomes more widespread and even those who live in Tehran cannot afford the cost of education. Today, the priority for families is to make ends meet. Surviving and making a living takes precedence over education, which is considered a secondary priority. In these circumstances, because historically sons are seen as the breadwinners, they can start helping their families from a young age. However, from a cultural perspective, daughters are seen as an extra mouth to feed and they have to reach an age where they can get married, which also creates the issue of child marriage. This is a widespread relative view in poor societies, especially those that also suffer from cultural poverty, where sons are seen as the workforce and daughters as an extra burden.

Today, we even see young girls working; for example, one of the vice principals of a girls’ high school in a poor neighborhood in Karaj was against the closure of schools during the coronavirus period, because some of the girls in that school were not able to attend virtual classes and were working in tailoring workshops instead. One of the consequences of the coronavirus on education in deprived areas such as Khuzestan or Sistan and Baluchestan was the increase in child marriage, and many students were left behind in their studies. Therefore, the coronavirus also had an impact on the issue of dropping out of school and increased this statistic.

Finally, in addition to the mentioned educational factors and overall issues, the problem of declining academic performance and dropping out of school should also include the issue of COVID-19.

Notes:

1- The average grade of students in the country is eleven and a half, Young Journalists Club, September 11th, 1401.

Student per capita is an expense that the government and the Ministry of Education are obligated to pay for current expenses to schools.