September 15, 2023
The Education Ministry has announced that English will no longer be required in Iran’s high schools, but Arabic will remain mandatory.
The change is the latest step ordered by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi who has long disliked the use of English as the second language.
Fatemeh Ramezani, the secretary of the Curriculum and Training Commission of the Supreme Council of Education, announced July 16 that “students must learn a foreign language during their junior and senior years of high school, but this language is not necessarily English.”
She said that instead of English, students can choose French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, and Spanish, as well as additional courses in Arabic.
Ramezani emphasized that Arabic “as the language of the Qoran” is mandatory in the first and second years of high school.
In January, the Islamic Republic announced its intention to change the content of textbooks in foreign language schools after criticism from the Supreme Leader.
The head of the body for non-governmental schools, Ahmad Mahmoudzadeh, told the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA): “We will produce new content for language books in line with the order of the Supreme Leader,” who months ago suggested more religious material should be caried in language texts.
Khamenehi has criticized teaching English in general. In 2016, he criticized its being taught as early as kindergarten, leading the Ministry of Education to subsequently ban teaching English in primary schools.
In recent years, some government officials have also suggested that instead of English, the teaching of Russian, Chinese and German languages should be promoted.