Tehran, July 12: The Iranian government announced Sunday that hundreds of religious clerics will be sent to schools in the capital to fight the influence of both the West and the opposition.
Iran’s educational authorities said 1,000 will address students in Tehran schools as of the next academic year that starts September to counter the influence of external forces regarded as detrimental to the country’s ideology, local newspapers reported Sunday.
” We have to take full advantage of this opportunity ”
Mohammad Boniadi, deputy director of Tehran’s Education DepartmentAccording to Mohammad Boniadi, deputy director of Tehran’s Education Department, the clerics will be assigned the duty of introducing the students to “opposition plots” and “arrogance,” in reference to the reformist movement that started in the aftermath of the June 2009 presidential elections and the attitude of Western nations towards the Islamic republic, respectively.
Boniadi was also quoted as saying that those clerics are considered “officers” in an ideological war.
The Education Department, Boniadi added, had not been able to “reform” and “renovate” the thoughts and mentality of Iranian students and has now been awarded the opportunity to do so at last.
“We have to take full advantage of this opportunity,” he said.
The Education Department has not yet specified which grades or age groups will be targeted by the plan or if all students are to be addressed by the assigned clerics.
Religious clerics have always had a sizable influence on schools since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Immediately after the Islamic government came to power, thousands of the so-called “morality teachers” were sent to schools to promote the new ideology espoused by the revolution.
At the time, this plan targeted elementary, middle, and high schools.
Several decades after the initial plan was briefly implemented, the idea of sending clerics to school resurfaced in 2006, a few months after hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power.
-Agencies