Part 1-Background The Country Of all the less-developed countries in the world today which are striving to become modern states along the political, economic, social, and educational pattern of the West, Iran is historically one of the most familiar. The country forms a land bridge between Asia and Europe, a strategic position which throughout its history has brought it many disasters. It was long overrun by foreign invaders-Greeks, Arabs, Moghuls-and in the present era the country as a sphere of influence has sustained many crises among clashing Western powers. Modern Iran is much smaller than the ancient Persian Empire which lay between the Oxus and the Indus to the east, and Macedonia to the west, and stretched from the desert of Algeria to the border of China. It now has an area of 628,000 square miles, about twice the size of Texas, or larger than France, England, and Germany combined. Located between the Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Sea of Oman, it is bounded on the north by the Soviet Union, sharing a frontier of over 1,000 miles; on the west by Iraq and Turkey; and on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan. The outstanding physical characteristic of the country is its aridity. The average annual rainfall is about 5 inches with the exception of the regions around the Caspian Sea, where it may exceed 50 inches. From ancient times people brought water to their fields by an ingeniously devised underground canal system often miles in length, called "Qanats." Water has been a determining factor in the country's settlement. Most of the villages and towns are located near the foot of mountain slopes because of the availability of water from mountain streams. The climate varies with latitude and altitude and ranges from the severe winters of the highland (especially the northwest region province of Azarbaijan) to the tropical heat of the Persian Gulf area. Economic Factors The majority of the Iranian people are peasant farmers. Lack of water, poor land, the tenure system, old methods and primitive implements, and poor sanitation, however, are all obstacles to the prog ress of the Iranian farmer. Efforts have been made in recent years to change and improve some of these agricultural conditions. For example, distribution of crown lands, instituted shortly after World War II, has been a stimulating and effective step towards the improvement of the land tenure system. Proceeds from the sale of crown lands to farmers and peasants are set aside by the government for other development purposes beneficial to farmers. Such funds have provided for the establishment of a Development Bank and Cooperative Organization to grant financial and technical assistance to farmers, train rural teachers and village workers, and establish village schools and hospitals. The country's most important industry is the exploitation of oil fields and the production of refined and crude oil and petroleum products. Fishing also figures in the country's economy, and development of its mineral resources. An important step in Iran's economic development was approval by the Parliament in February 1949 of the Seven-Year Plan Development Law aimed at developing agriculture, industry, and mining. A similar plan undertaken in 1947 had encountered difficulties because of the oil crisis which followed the British blockade of Iran after nationalization of the oil industry. With the resolving of the oil crisis in 1954, a new Seven-Year Plan was started, and in 1955, three firms of consulting engineers (American, French, and German) were appointed by the Plan Organization to undertake technical investigations, designs, and supervision of all social development projects. Work of the Plan Organization has concentrated on the improvement of communications and transportation, the modernization of agriculture, increased production and development of hydroelectric power. Its activities have spread into other fields, including the development of education and improvement of health and hygiene conditions, with emphasis placed on the completion of unfinished schools, hospitals, and medical centers. On the whole, with the improvement of communication and transportation, Iran's industry shows much greater potentialities, and thus capacity to provide and support better educational opportunities. The People Iran has a population of about 20,633,000.1 More than 98 percent of the people are of the Muslim faith; the rest are Hebrew, Christian, and Zoroastrian. The official language of the country is Farsi, or Persian, one of the Indo-European family of languages. Since the 1 UNESCO. Demographic Yearbook 1960. Paris: p. 139. invasion of the Arabs in the 7th century, a little less than half the words in common use are Arabic in origin. Lacking in technological expressions, in recent years the Persian language has borrowed from the West. Before World War II, under the late Riza Shah Pahlavi, a serious attempt was made to "purify" the language by eliminating Arabic and Western words, which resulted in the creation of many new words, especially terms associated with political and military administration and education. According to the law, Persian must be taught in all schools of Iran, and almost all its newspapers are in Persian. Persian dialects, such as Gilani, Mazanderani, and Persian-related languages spoken by Lurs and the Bakhtiari tribesmen are almost incomprehensible to a Persian-speaking national. However, Persian is known one way or another by most of the other inhabitants. With the improved facilities for transportation, communication, and travel, the dialects are slowly giving way to the official language. In addition to Persian, a number of Turkic dialects, Arabic, and a few other languages are spoken in Iran. In Azarbaijan in the northwest, the language is Turki, both written and spoken, and Turkic dialects are spoken by various tribes, including Turkmen in the northeast and the Qashqa'i and Khamseh in the south. About 4 million people in Iran speak these dialects. Some 2 million in Khuzistan and along the Persian Gulf area speak Arabic. In general, Iranian society is made up of four classes: the great landowners; the Muslim clergy known as "Ulema"; traders, shopkeepers, laborers, and artisans; and farmers or peasants. It is estimated that some 2 million Iranians are migratory or semisedentary nomadic tribes, widely distributed over the country. They are the Kurds, Lurs, Bakhtiari, Qashqa’k, Khamseh, Shahsevans, Arabs, and Baluchi. Other ethnic groups include Assyrians and Armenians who live chiefly in northwestern Iran, and Jews, who have been in Iran since ancient times. The Government Iranian history has had alternating periods of brilliant conquest and overwhelming disaster, and in spite of the long continuous struggles, the country has been able to preserve a rich culture that has contributed a great deal to world civilization. The government of Iran has been a constitutional monarchy since 1906, with three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. Legislation is vested in a parliament composed of two chambers: the Na tional Consultative Assembly (Majlis) and the Senate or Upper Chamber. The Assembly consists of 200 members elected by localities for 2 years, roughly in proportion to the population. Each ethnic and religious minority, such as Armenians, Assyrians, Zoroastrians, and Jews, has its own representative. The Senate is composed of 60 members, half elected by the people and half appointed by the Shah, for a 2-year term. The executive branch is headed by the Shah or the King; his Cabinet with the Prime Minister as its head is primarily responsible to the National Consultative Assembly. Administration of the government is carried on by the King and the Cabinet, composed, besides the Prime Minister, of ministers for education, economics, commerce, labor, agriculture, industry and mining, justice, interior, war, communication, foreign affairs, health, and finance. The ministers are responsible individually and jointly for the proper execution of the laws and the fulfillment of their respective duties. Part II-Educational Developments From time immemorial, education in Iran has emphasized the teaching of religion and ethics. For almost 13 centuries the Zoroastrian religion formed the nucleus of Iranian education. Building a strong body, speaking the truth, and perpetuating the Zoroastrian social motto, "Good thoughts, good words, and good deeds," were the important principles. In the middle of the seventh century Iran was conquered by the Arabs, and Islam became the national religion. Those who mastered Arabic (the language of the Koran, the Moslem holy book) could teach and educate others. Education was still dominated by religion, and in fact, education came to be the monopoly of the Moslem clergy. Teaching subjects dealing with the Islamic code and the Shariah, the Sacred Law of Islam, was carried on in the Koranic schools. The elementary one-room school or Maktabs, and the theological seminaries or Madrassehs, usually attached to Masjeds or mosques, were supported by wealthy charitable persons. The elementary schools, which usually adjoined the Madrassehs, were in the hands of poorly prepared teachers who were graduates of the Madrassehs, and offered nothing more than instruction in a simple form of reading and writing and a few principles of religion. Early European Influence The educational system of Iran has been profoundly influenced by religion, tradition, and the impact of different cultures, particularly French. Early in the 19th century, various cultural and other French missions sent to Iran assisted in the establishment of schools. The first Iranian institution, called Darul-Funun (Polytechnic), to be patterned after French schools in curriculum and organization was opened at Teheran in 1851 by the government. In 1858 a group of 42 Iranian students was sent to Europe, mostly to France, to complete studies in medicine, engineering, political science, and astronomy. The highly cultured French missions, the French teachers employed in higher institutions of learning (Darul-Funun) at Teheran, and other relations with the French all helped to establish the cultural influence of France in Iran. 672422-63 |