In what officials in Tehran now see as ”cultural invasion”, the approach is what the Islamic Republic consider what will finally bring an end to Western influence in its educational system. The head of the state-run High Education Council Mehdi Navid-Adham declared on state TV over the weekend ”Teaching English in government and non-government primary schools in the official curriculum is against laws and regulations, this is because the assumption is that, in primary education, the ground for Iranian culture of the students is laid.” Adding that non-curriculum English classes might be ban as well.
Middle school children, between the ages 12-14 start learning English with some primary schools starting when the pupils are much younger.
It’s not the first time the top brass of Iranian leadership has publicly warned against the dangers of Western ”cultural invasion”. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lashed out back in 2016 how Iran has gotten the point where ”teaching the English language has spread to nursery schools.” He went ahead to reiterate the point that condemning the Queen’s language, ”does not mean opposition to learning a foreign language, but the promotion of a foreign culture in the country and among children, young adults, and youths.” The Ayatollah didn’t end there, he delved further ”Western thinkers have time and again said that instead of colonialist expansionism of the 19th century, the best and the least costly way would have been inculcation of thought and culture to the younger generation of countries and training experts and elites that would act like soldiers of the system of dominance.”
Since the outbreak of protests which is on it’s the third week now, which have resulted in several arrests and dozen deaths, Iran and Western nations have further drifted apart, as authorities in the Islamic Republic blocked social media sites and telegram, blocking internet service in an attempt to quell these anti-government sentiments, which the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani believed they are motivated by ”foreign enemies of Iran” angered by its success, progress over the years and regional glory.
On Sunday, the nation’s elite force. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard declared a victory over the unrest, which has seen nearly 20 people killed, protests were sparked by government corruption, economic turmoil. Media reports suggest police stations and other government buildings have come under attack by angry protesters.
Neba Benson,
BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst
