The announcement said this was but the first round of changes and that other courses would be altered in succeeding terms.
The announcement was the culmination of a shift Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi demanded more than a year ago. Courses in the arts and humanities were rated as being too Western and he ordered their content to be changed to reflect Islamic and Iranian values.
Just exactly what that means remains vague. Khamenehi spoke on Teachers Day last Wednesday and laid out the philosophy behind the shift at considerable length. But there was little substance in what he said. It was heavy on the standard anti-Western rhetoric.
Khamenehi spoke of the need to educate students to be honest, knowledgeable, talented, creative, good-natured and courageous. He complained that the Western system was narrow-minded, cynical, depressed, frustrated, impious, wicked and sinful.
The Science Ministry did not list the courses being altered or detail how they had been changed.
Iran used to have a ministry for higher education. But several years ago, it was abolished with the pledge that universities could be more independent. The residual authority of the government was left to the Science Ministry. But it now appears that shift was purely cosmetic with the Science Ministry dictating course content among many other decrees it has made about higher education.
Another Science Ministry announcement last month said Friday prayer leaders would now begin to lecture at universities to “reinforce piety and Islamic values in academic society.” It wasn’t made clear if they would be teaching courses for credit or speaking at events outside classes.
In his speech last week about education, Khamenehi said: “Our current education system has not shown the required capability for the education of our various generations. The primary reason is that this system, this establishment is imported. It did not source from our internal needs. This is one of our major problems.”
Khamenehi said, “We should not feel ashamed to learn from others. What we should be ashamed of is promoting other countries’ patterns and role models in our own country and among our own people without customizing them, without taking the differences into account.
“This has happened in our country. For 100 years, some have failed to understand how they should advance this country. Obviously, I am not talking
about those who worked as mercenaries for the intelligence services of foreign countries; I am talking about those who had good intentions and meant to advance this country but failed to see what they were supposed to do. They wrongly believed that they had to become exactly like foreigners. They believed they had to westernize themselves.…
“Our development must be based upon an independent and Iranian model whose origin is the spiritual values and the needs of this society. In other words, it should originate from pure Islam, that version of Islam in which we believe.… It should aim to school and educate human resources that are in line with the Islamic Republic.”
Khamenehi said, “If the Islamic Republic wants to bear the flag of Islam and seeks prosperity and wants to secure itself both in this and the other world—as the Koran teaches us that you can have a good life both in this world and the other, and this should happen—we need some changes.…
“We need to educate honest, knowledgeable, talented, creative, good-natured, courageous people; people who can step onto new domains; we need people who suffer no inferiority or superiority complex. We need people who are in love with God Almighty and depend on and have full trust in the divine power. We need patient and tolerant people. We need to educate optimistic and hopeful individuals.”
As for the Western model, he said: “Narrow-minded, cynical, depressed and frustrated people, those who are impious, wicked and sinful, cannot advance their countries and make their nations happy. Naturally, they cannot be our role model. By developing our own educational system we should seek this goal.”
