TEHRAN – The 27th national conference on honoring school-building benefactors was held in Tehran on Monday, with Education Minister Alireza Kazemi and several benefactors in attendance.

“The conference aims to attract maximum participation to help realize the national strategy of the ‘movement for the expansion of equality in educational space and equipment’,” IRNA quoted Hamid-Reza Khanmohammadi, an official with the Ministry of Education, as saying.

“It also provides a great opportunity to commend benefactors. They are the social asset of the country and play a pivotal role in the expansion of educational infrastructure in the country,” he added.

The official went on to say that benefactors’ conscious and ongoing participation has made a great contribution to developing educational spaces, as over 50 per cent of the schools in the country are constructed with their aid.

Addressing the conference, the head of the School-Building Donors Association, Hamid-Reza Shah-hosseini, for his part, said the School-Building Donors Association was founded in the Iranian year 1377 (1998). Since then, it has played a prominent role in school building. Throughout all these years, the contributions have had an upward trend. Over the past three years, benefactors have provided 120, 180, 240 trillion rials, about 85, 127, 170 million dollars, respectively.

Benefactors contribute to building half of schools

In February 2025, the government spokesperson, Fatemeh Mohajerani, said some 51 percent of the schools in the country are constructed with the help of benefactors.

“The participation of school-building benefactors has significantly increased in recent years so that about 48 to 51 percent of the schools are built thanks to their financial assistance,” IRIB quoted Mohajerani as saying.

Benefactors’ participation in constructing schools shows their commitment and will to improve educational opportunities and develop educational infrastructure; their efforts can have positive, profound impacts on the education, students, and the future of the country, she noted.

The official went on to say that the current administration focuses on expanding educational infrastructure and building new schools, to replace the prefabricated ones, with the help of benefactors, even in areas where there are only one or two students.

“Education, educational equity, and the elimination of educational deprivation are among the top priorities of the current administration,” the official highlighted.

Educational equity a fundamental goal

President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that the administration intends to transform the education system so that no student is deprived of the right to quality education, highlighting that educational equity is not a mere slogan but a fundamental goal.

It Is not acceptable that students in public schools in underprivileged areas do not receive a good education while they have to compete with students in private schools that benefit from the best education, Pezeshkian stressed.

He made the remarks on December 26, 2024, in Bojnourd, the capital of North Khorasan province, Borna reported.

The president said providing vocational training alongside education is one of the key areas of transforming educational methods, through which the youth will develop skills needed for a profession after graduating from high school.

Referring to the extensive plans to solve the infrastructural challenges of schools, the president stressed, “We will overcome all school construction challenges within a year. One of our main objectives is to turn public schools into the best education model.”

MT/MG