Official says number of Afghan students in Iran schools rises by 40%

Mehdi Fayyazi, the head of the Center for International Affairs and deputy minister of education, told IRNA on Wednesday that following remarks made by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in 2015 about educating all Afghan migrants students living in Iran legally or even illegally, the Ministry of Education has accepted around 800k Afghan pupils at schools throughout the Islamic country.

Pointing to the fact that some of these pupils have not registered their information on the proposed website yet, he stated that there are no precise statistics on the students and density in some areas.

The official added that the Ministry of Education is prepared to welcome Afghan pupils despite the fact that schools in some provinces such as Qom, Tehran, and Razavi Khorasan have reached their maximum capacity.

Fayyazi also urged Afghan migrants to receive special cards for education support and avoid trying to enroll at schools directly.

He further referred to schools for foreign nationals, which are non-governmental and are set up by some foreign investors, noting that those who want to establish schools for foreign nationals must go through the official procedures, so Afghan sponsors are expected to respect the law.

Following the change of power in Afghanistan and the re-taking of the helm in Kabul by the Taliban forces, thousands of migrant families poured into Iran; therefore, the number of Afghan refugees in the Islamic country increased.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Education tasked schools to enroll children of foreign nationals living in the country legally; thus, schools in different cities and provinces embark on enrolling foreign national students, especially Afghan pupils.