Literacy in Iran: Before and after the Revolution
The Islamic Revolution of Iran, which was launched by the people and led by Imam Khomeini, overthrew the Pahlavi Regime 45 years ago on February 11, 1979. the Islamic Revolution managed to overcome many of these obstacles that were detrimental to the country’s development and welfare, and it was able to achieve prominent advances. One of the advances made was the improvement of public literacy through the formation of the Literacy Movement Organization on December 28, 1979, which was one of the main issues of the Islamic Revolution. During the time of the Islamic Republic improving education became one of the main policies of the government.
The Literacy Movement Organization is the main, largest organization in Iran promoting literacy with more than 50,000 instructors and 6,000 administrators working throughout the country. It has branches located in more than 300 villages in 28 provinces. LMO has been actively promoting literacy and continuing education, and it has been conducting various literacy programs to teach children and adults to read throughout the country. LMO was established after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. It was awarded an honorable mention in the King Sejong Literacy Prize in 1998 by UNESCO, the Noma Literacy Prize in 2000, the Malcolm Adiseshiah Award in 1999 and three other international awards.
The Islamic Revolution of Iran, which was launched by the people and led by Imam Khomeini, overthrew the Pahlavi Regime 45 years ago on February 11, 1979. The people took control of the country at a time when the country was suffering from many problems in different areas including education, sanitation, women’s participation, university education, the situation of the underprivileged, etc. Nevertheless, the Islamic Revolution managed to overcome many of these obstacles that were detrimental to the country’s development and welfare, and it was able to achieve prominent advances.
One of the advances made was the improvement of public literacy through the formation of the Literacy Movement Organization on December 28, 1979, which was one of the main issues of the Islamic Revolution. During the Pahlavi regimes, education was only available to certain groups of people. The Pahlavi government tried to keep the public at a lower level in society by keeping them illiterate so that it could dominate the people.
In contrast, during the time of the Islamic Republic improving education became one of the main policies of the government. This was to the extent that according to international organizations significant developments were made in the area of literacy for the general public in addition to high-level scientific advances.
According to the World Bank’s report, only 36% of Iranians were literate in the age group between 15 and 95 years old before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, while the global average was 69% at that time.[1] But according to the World Bank, Iran’s literacy rate reached 86% in 2016, which was equal to the global average of 86%. That is to say, Iran's growth rate in this age group after the Revolution has been so fast that it was able to fill the 33% gap that existed at that time between pre-revolutionary Iran and the global literacy rate.
The World Bank report adds that in the 15-24 age group, Iran is approximately 7% higher than the world average in this age group with a literacy rate of 98% in 2016.[2] The world has witnessed a 20% growth in its literacy rate over the forty years between 1976 and 2016. However, Iran has experienced a growth of approximately 50% in its literacy rate during this same time period.[3]
During the Pahlavi regime, illiteracy among women was more than among men. In the age group of 15 and above before the Islamic Revolution, the literacy rate was 24% among women, which was 23.4% less than men. At that time, the rate of literacy for women in the world was 56%. In 2016, the literacy rate of women reached 81% in Iran while the global rate was 82%.[4]
With the aim of establishing gender justice in terms of literacy, as well as making sure that girls can completely and fairly access basic, quality education, about 80% of literacy activities were devoted to girls and women, especially in rural areas. Thus the rate of literacy increased with a higher pace among women. The results of a survey conducted between 1976 and 2016 indicated the gap between women’s and men’s literacy rates decreased from roughly 23% in 1976 to about 9% in 2016.
The Islamic Republic has not pursued a policy of increasing literacy only for Iranians. In fact, due to the importance of education in Islam and recommendations made by the Prophet of Islam (pbuh) in this regard, the Islamic Republic has also worked on the promotion of literacy for foreign residents in Iran. This program was designed to enhance the literacy rate of immigrants living in Iran for empowering foreign residents, while prioritizing the Afghan immigrants, in order to improve their personal and social life. Between 1985 and 2011, 681,153 foreign residents registered in the Literacy Movement classes and were covered under the Literacy Promotion plan.
The Literacy Promotion Movement has benefited 102,835 illiterate foreigners by providing literacy services since the year 2012. Overall since the year 1985, 783,988 foreign residents in Iran were covered under the literacy programs.
In order to bring educational equality and reduce gaps in the literacy rates between rural and urban parts of the country, about 55% of literacy activities were devoted to rural regions over the past 40 years. As a result, the literacy index has improved in underprivileged regions. Based on the surveys conducted between 1977 and 2016, the literacy rate in urban regions increased from 65.5% in 1976 to 90.8% in 2016. During the same time period, the literacy rate in rural regions increased from 30.5% to 78.5%. In other words, the increase in literacy in rural regions was taking place at a faster pace. Therefore, the gap between rural and urban regions’ literacy rates decreased from 35% in 1976 to 12.3% in 2016.
Furthermore, the number of female university students has increased from 29.8% in 1977 to 45% in 2014.[5] We have also witnessed a 16-time growth in the number of female faculty members in universities compared to before the Islamic Revolution. In 1979, female faculty members represented 1.4% of the total. But in 2018, this number reached to 24%. Currently, 20% of university professors are women, a total of seven thousand female faculty members. This is while only 1.4% of the university professors were women before the Revolution.
The number of female students in universities has increased as follows: in the medical sciences from 31,869 in 1990-91 to 161,845 in 2015-16, in social sciences from 31,617 in 1990-91 to 1,058,745 in 2015-16, in basic sciences from 15,950 in 1990-91 to 175,906 in 2015-16, in technical and engineering fields from 3,147 in 1990-91 to 308,821 in 2015-16, in agriculture and the veterinary sciences from 445 in 1990-91 to 101,358 in 2015-16, and in the arts from 2,297 in 1990-91 to 195,884 in 2015-16.
In the academic year 2016-2017, from a total of 1,871,599 female university students, 46,316 were studying general practice in the medical sciences and 59,220 were studying to become specialists.
[1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS?end=2016&locations=IR-1W&start=1976&view=chart
[2]https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.1524.LT.ZS?locations=IR-1W
[3]https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS?end=2016&locations=IR-1W&most_recent_value_desc=false&start=1976&view=chart
[4]https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.FE.ZS?end=2016&locations=IR-1W&most_recent_value_desc=false&start=1976&view=chart
[5] http://data.uis.unesco.org/index.aspx?queryid=165#
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