The newspaper Shargh has published a report on the selection process for teaching students and applicants for employment in the Ministry of Education, revealing certain realities. Some students and applicants for the employment test have stated that they were barred from studying or obtaining teaching jobs for non-professional reasons, such as reading philosophy books, dressing style, having a mustache, wearing nail polish, interacting with classmates of the opposite gender, not wearing a chador during the written exam, having visible hair in interviews, liking Instagram pages, or minimal participation in government rallies. The report mentions specific instances.
One applicant refers to code 19 in the selection process and says: “Code 19 pertains to political issues, attire, hijab, not participating in elections, and liking Instagram pages. Many applicants were told they were rejected due to code 19, and I, too, was rejected because of code 19.”
The report quotes a case involving a rejected applicant: a student, who was religious, had a personal style in dressing. During the selection process, he was told, “You are a Marxist.” The student asked for an explanation, and they responded, “Because of your mustache style, you look like a Marxist to us.”
A female applicant was rejected because she had once gone from the girls’ campus to the boys’ campus at the invitation of a university association. Beyond all of this, the most astonishing action during the selection process involved a student’s reading habits. A student from Isfahan was summoned, and they told him, “We have been informed that you read philosophy books.” He responded that these books are domestically published and approved by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. They replied, “Reading too many books makes people think differently; in our view, people who read too much have mental issues.” This student was expelled, with “mental issues” noted in his record.
These actions are occurring while the selection process was meant to be accelerated, as the Ministry of Education is facing a shortage of at least 176,000 teachers to instruct more than 16.5 million students. In July, ISNA reported that by the beginning of October, 72,000 teachers would retire. Additionally, numerous, though unspecified, teachers have been dismissed for supporting the Jina revolutionary movement or even for posting on Instagram. The number of these high-quality, progressive, and courageous individuals dismissed is unknown. In early November 2023, the representative from Mahabad told the Didban news website, “Based on statistics available to us, since Mr. Sahraei took office as the Minister of Education, around 15,000 to 20,000 school principals have been dismissed for political and ideological reasons.”
These dismissals, which continue, are conducted under the term “purification” and currently apply solely to school principals. However, on July 16th, Morteza Nazari, former head of the Ministry of Education’s Information Center, told the newspaper Etemad that 20,000 school principals had been dismissed or disciplined under the current government.
With over one million teachers and administrative and operational staff, the Ministry of Education is the largest executive body in the Islamic Republic. Among both active and retired employees, there are several pioneering, courageous, and combative individuals who are among the most organized progressive activists in the country, with a significant role in radicalizing the nation’s democratic movement. Aside from its dedicated staff, this ministry is often characterized as a corrupt, inefficient, and repressive bureaucracy with high-level officials known for incompetence. The issues mentioned here reflect only a small part of the Ministry of Education’s characteristics. In reality, this ministry mirrors the capitalist Islamic Republic and must eventually be dismantled alongside it.
In the current situation, however, it is still possible to impose certain demands on it. First and foremost, education must be genuinely mandatory and free for all social classes, with breakfast and lunch provided to children in schools. All schools and educational spaces should be cleared of spies, Basijis, clerics, and security forces. Education must be entirely separated from religion, and only globally accepted sciences should serve as the foundation of curricula. Educational centers should be full of energy, fostering talents, creativity, inquisitiveness, and independent personalities. In educational spaces, children and young people should be raised with confidence, free from religious superstitions and outdated traditions.
