The Presence of Clergy in Schools: Job Creation for Clergy
The presence of clergy in schools is aimed at job creation for clergy. Programs like Amin, Roshana, Rouhani Madreseh, Safiran Hedayat, Mehrab, Dideban, and Habl al-Matin have been conceptualized in recent years to increase the presence of clergy in schools. However, it seems that from the new academic year, we will witness a more serious and extensive presence of clergy in schools, even though more than three thousand clerical conscripts and seven thousand official clergy are currently active in education.
In past years, clergy visits to schools were mostly limited to giving speeches or leading prayers, but some believed this temporary and minimal presence should become serious and official.
Like a teacher, supervisor, or educational counselor, clergy should have a permanent and effective presence in school activities. For this reason, Hamid Nikzad, advisor to the minister and secretary of the Seminary and Education Cooperation Headquarters, announced a five-year cooperation program between the seminary and education. He mentioned actions like stabilizing the headquarters’ structure in the country’s employment affairs organization, strengthening educational activities in schools by expanding the Amin plan, enhancing the school-mosque link by implementing the Mehrab plan, and conducting scientific and insightful courses for teachers through the Dideban plan.
He mentioned that currently, 20,000 clergy are active in the Amin plan in schools across the country. He said the seminary and the Seminary-Education Cooperation Headquarters are also obliged to provide clerics for education. Nikzad even announced the establishment of non-governmental schools and kindergartens affiliated with the seminary and clergy, and the development of mosque-based schools in the country under the title of Habl al-Matin schools.
Official or Part-time Recruitment
In November 2017, Kayhan newspaper wrote that over the years, the country’s educational system, due to ineffective communication with seminaries, has not been able to fully achieve the intended goals of providing content based on Islamic principles in its true sense. Solving this problem requires immediate, comprehensive, and extensive actions in various fields.
Actions such as reviewing and revising educational materials, reviewing and revising the teacher and instructor recruitment and training system, and creating a suitable network to make better use of the seminaries’ capacity and the intellectual and mental capabilities of qualified clerics in schools and universities are examples of prioritized actions to address existing educational problems.
Kayhan wrote that recruitment can be official and gradual or in the form of part-time and unofficial teaching assignments. It can also be in the form of an internship plan for clerics, like two days a week, one week a month, or one month a year. It is also good to arrange for part of the educational course for educational trainers to be preferably provided in seminaries or by seminaries, and for existing trainers, in-service courses should be held in cooperation with seminaries.
An Ahmadinejad Era Idea
For the first time in 2009, during Ahmadinejad’s government, this idea was seriously proposed. With the arrival of Rouhani’s government, it was sidelined, and now it has been revived under Raisi’s government. Twelve years ago, Hojat al-Islam Ali Zoulam, advisor to the minister and then secretary of the Education and Seminary Cooperation Headquarters, announced the implementation of the school clergy plan across all schools in Iran, considering it a solution to counter the Western culture dominant in Iranian schools.
He said they had concluded that the presence of clergy in schools would solve students’ educational problems, while currently, the presence of clerics and clergy in school congregational prayers is minimal, and only a few students in Iran participate in congregational prayers.
We are trying to maximize the minimal presence of the prayer leader in Iranian schools and assign the responsibility of school clergy to individuals separate from other officials like the principal, deputy, and supervisor. The educational counselor in Iranian schools is a clergy, eulogist, and prayer leader who manages the religious education of students.
To Prevent Brain Drain
It has been announced in the news that from the new academic year, we will witness a serious presence of clergy in schools, especially with schools in Qom being prioritized for implementing this plan. Recently, Saeedi, the Friday prayer leader of Qom, referring to the presence of clergy in gifted schools in a plan called Roshana, said that we aim to strengthen religious and doctrinal issues among the elites, which in turn will reduce migration and brain drain.
Gifted students will develop more interest in the country and serving the Islamic system, just as historical artifacts are stolen and not returned to us, our country’s elites are also stolen, and all efforts are made to ensure they do not return to our country.
The Director General of Education in Qom also said that we aim to strengthen religious and doctrinal issues among the elites, which in turn will reduce migration and brain drain. Gifted children, teenagers, and young people are under attack from all sides, and there is no way to save them from these assaults except by familiarizing them with the rich teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) and the Holy Quran.
Based on Which Document
Abdolrasoul Emadi, in an article republished by the Teacher’s Voice site, criticized such plans, writing that the full-time presence of clergy in schools is based on which requirement from the national curriculum program and the fundamental transformation document of education.
According to the national curriculum document, the school’s educational program is defined in diverse learning domains, and each learning domain has its specific content and teacher. In addition, the school’s management system also has a clear framework and defined roles for the elements of this management system. On what basis is the presence of a clergy in the school?
He further wrote that the clergy is supposed to play the role of a school supervisor. Firstly, this role already has its defined custodian. The clergy does not play the role of advisor, educational guide, teacher, instructor, art teacher, workshop master, or executive deputy in the school.
Because each of these roles requires a custodian with the relevant education and expertise, and even if those in these positions do not have the related expertise, these positions are not vacant for a cleric to take on. And if these positions are vacant, the solution is not for a cleric to fill them.