TEHRAN - The Organization for the Renovation of Schools announced that 2,407 school construction projects were completed last year (March 2025-2026), and plans are in place to build over 2,300 classrooms this year.

Hamidreza Khan-Mohammadi, the head of the organization, also spoke about the development of solar power plants in schools, stating that the implementation of a solar power project with a total capacity of 1,260 megawatts has begun across 12,000 schools, Mehr reported.

"So far, work has been carried out on approximately 2,500 power plants, and equipment for another 5,000—out of a total of 12,000—has been procured and prepared," he added.
 
Regarding the commitments made by school-building benefactors, he stated: "Last year, the total value of pledges by benefactors stood at 286 trillion rials (around 155 million dollars), and to date, new commitments amounting to 97 trillion rials (around 52 million dollars) have been registered."

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,” she highlighted.

Solar-powered schools

A national plan to equip around 12,000 schools across the country with solar power plants began in June with the installation of a 5-kilowatt system in a technical-vocational school in Tehran.

Schools affected by war, boarding schools, schools in border areas, and in underprivileged regions are given priority. Donors have taken responsibility for covering costs, and the Clean Energy Organization is providing the required equipment to the selected schools. Also, the provincial officials and electricity departments are participating in the preparation and installation process, IRNA reported.

So far, 12 out of 31 provinces have announced their readiness, and the goal is to equip all 12,000 schools with 5-kilowatt systems by mid-September. There are about 100,000 public schools in the country, more than 60 percent of which have the capacity to install solar panels.

In November 2025, Majid Parsa, head of the Tehran Education Department, announced that 1,200 schools across Tehran province were set to be equipped with rooftop solar panel systems by the end of the past Iranian calendar year (20 March 2026). The initiative followed an agreement with the Tehran Governor’s Office to install five-kilowatt systems on each participating school.

Parsa noted that the project would initially be implemented on a trial basis to assess performance, maintenance and grid integration. “The Education Department has already equipped five schools with pilot solar systems, which have shown promising results,” he said at the time. He added that solar-powered schools could play a vital role in energy conservation, providing clean electricity for their own use and potentially supplying surplus power to the national grid.