Poverty, child labor, and child marriage partially behind Iran’s unfilled classrooms

The Education Ministry in Iran has revealed that a significant number of primary school-aged children have been unable to attend classes due to poverty, child labor, and child marriage. Deputy Minister of Primary Education, Rezvan Hakimzadeh, disclosed that 140,562 students were absent from school last year, with the majority residing in Sistan and Baluchestan, Tehran, Razavi Khorasan, and Khuzestan provinces. Among these children, 54,445 were in their first year of primary education.

Nearly 42,000 of the students had migrated with their families, while 18,000 were exempt from enrollment due to disabilities. The remaining students were found to be out of school due to family financial difficulties, child labor, insufficient guardianship, or attendance at unauthorized educational institutions. Moreover, 86 cases involved primary school-aged children who were not attending school because they had been married.

Iranian law mandates that girls must be 13 years old and boys 15 years old to marry, although a judge's approval can permit earlier marriages. The beginning of the school year in Iran has also brought attention to the nation's population crisis. According to Quds Online, a news outlet affiliated with the Astan Quds Razavi foundation, only 1.154 million six-year-old children commenced primary school in Iran this year, a decrease of approximately 76,000 children from the previous year.

Iran's demographic challenges stem from declining birth rates, delayed marriage and childbearing, economic pressures, and evolving lifestyles. Alireza Sajedi, head of Iran's Population Monitoring Center, expressed concern that the number of births fell from around 1.116 million in 2021 to fewer than 980,000 in 2024. These demographic shifts may result in reduced classroom sizes and a decrease in the number of classes in urban areas, while rural schools might become unsustainable to maintain.