Role of clergy to expand in Iranian schools

Source: Radio Zamaneh

Educators are to undergo extra training by the clergy, the Iranian Ministry of Education has announced. ILNA reports that Mohammad Bonyadi, a ministry advisor, said the education system will make every effort to avail itself of clerical teachings.

File Photo: A protest gathering by pro-Khamenei clerics in Qom in December 2009

"According to a new agreement between the ministry and seminaries, the clergy will participate in a major way in the training of educators, students and parents," Bonyadi said.

He added: "One million teachers, 12 to 13 million students and 25 million parents will be taught by clerics."

A committee to guarantee close collaboration between the education system and the clergy was established five years ago. One of its first acts was to mandate the appointment of clergy members who would be available on site in schools across the country.

That move, the Minister of Education announced last year, put the education system on the verge of "a great development" based on the demands of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

The minister also noted the 10,000 Koranic schools and announced plans for 50,000 more.

The minister identified schools as "the one place targeted by the enemy to wage its soft war."

He added that the clergy should organize ideology classes for teachers and serve as counsellors for students.

In the wake of the widespread protests that followed the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, Ayatollah Khamenei identified education centres as targets in the "enemy's soft war" where "Western thoughts" and "opposition against Islam" could be disseminated.

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