Education of Iran

Education is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 11. Roughly four-fifths of men and two-thirds of women are literate. Primary education is followed by a three-year guidance cycle, which assesses students’ aptitudes and determines whether they will enter an academic, scientific, or vocational program during high school. Policy changes initiated since the revolution eliminated coeducational schools and required all schools and universities to promote Islamic values. The latter is a reaction to the strong current of Western secularism that permeated higher education under the monarchy. Adherence to the prevalent political dogma has long been an important factor for students and faculty who wish to succeed in Iranian universities. In fact, acceptance to universities in Iran is largely based on a candidate’s personal piety, either real or perceived.

The University of Tehrān was founded in 1934, and several more universities, teachers’ colleges, and technical schools have been established since then. Iran’s institutes of higher learning suffered after the revolution, however, when tens of thousands of professors and instructors either fled the country or were dismissed because of their secularism or association with the monarchy. Iran’s universities have remained understaffed, and thus student enrollment has dropped in a country that greatly esteems higher education. The shortage of skilled teachers has led the government to encourage students to study abroad, in an effort to improve the quality and quantity of advanced degree holders and faculty. While overall enrollment numbers have fallen, the rate of women’s admission at the university level has climbed dramatically, and by 2000 more than half of incoming students were women.

The public school system is controlled by the Ministry of Education and Training. Universities are under the supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education and Culture, and medical schools are under the Ministry of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education.

Cultural milieu

Few countries enjoy such a long cultural heritage as does Iran, and few people are so aware of and articulate about their deep cultural tradition as are the Iranians. Iran, or Persia, as a historical entity, dates to the time of the Achaemenids (about 2,500 years ago), and, despite political, religious, and historic changes, Iranians maintain a deep connection to their past. Although daily life in modern Iran is closely interwoven with Shiʿi Islam, the country’s art, literature, and architecture are an ever-present reminder of its deep national tradition and of a broader literary culture that during the premodern period spread throughout the Middle East and South Asia. Much of Iran’s modern history can be attributed to the essential tension that existed between the Shiʿi piety promoted by Iran’s clergy and the Persian cultural legacy—in which religion played a subordinate role—proffered by the Pahlavi monarchy.

Despite the predominance of Persian culture, Iran remains a multiethnic state, and the country’s Armenian, Azerbaijani, Kurdish, and smaller ethnic minorities each have their own literary and historical traditions dating back many centuries, even—in the case of the Armenians—to the pre-Christian era. These groups frequently maintain close connections with the larger cultural life of their kindred outside Iran.