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EDUCATION ix. PRIMARY SCHOOLS A movement to introduce modern primary education into Persia began in 1315/1897, when the newly appointed grand vizier, Mīrzā ʿAlī Khan Amīn-al-Dawla (q.v.), initiated his modernizing reforms. In that year, under his patronage, Ḥājī Mīrzā Ḥasan Rošdīya founded the first modern primary school in Tehran. Rošdīya…

EDUCATION x. MIDDLE AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS Modern secondary education in Persia was originally based on the 19th-century European humanistic system, which was focused on general knowledge and building character, rather than on professional or vocational training. This basic European philosophy dominated the Persian secondary-school system until the 1960s, when reforms…

EDUCATION xi. PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND EDUCATIONAL GROUPS Despite government intervention in educational matters since the foundation of Dār al-fonūn (q.v.) in the mid-19th century, the initial expansion of modern education in Persia was promoted by foreign missionaries and private individuals, usually philanthropists, who considered that national progress lay in expansion…

EDUCATION xii. VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS Attempts to train Persians in modern technology began under the crown prince ʿAbbās Mīrzā (q.v.) and his vizier, Mīrzā Abu’l-Qāsem Qāʾem-Maqām, in the 1810s and 1820s, when seven students were sent to England, three to Russia, and two to France for training in various…

EDUCATION xiii. RURAL AND TRIBAL SCHOOLS Compulsory-education laws enacted in 1329/1911 and 1943 provided the legal framework for the extension of modern education into rural and tribal areas. Until the 1950s, however, the Persian government did not possess the resources necessary to implement these laws, and, in addition, landowners and…

EDUCATION xiv. SPECIAL SCHOOLS Children with special educational needs include the gifted, slow learners, the physically handicapped, the emotionally disturbed (nā-sāzegār), and the blind and the deaf. In Persia education for such children basically consists of instruction in reading, writing, other elementary-school subjects, and some vocational training. Blind pupils and…

EDUCATION xv. FOREIGN AND MINORITY SCHOOLS IN PERSIA Modern education was introduced to Persia in the 19th century by European and American religious institutions (e.g., Figure 1) and military advisers. From 1251/1836, when the first modern elementary school was founded by the American mission in Urmia, until the early 20th…

EDUCATION xvi. SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS No standardized schoolbooks existed in Persia before the advent of the modern educational system. The first were written by European teachers at the Dār al-fonūn in the mid-19th century. They were translated by Persian assistants and printed at the school’s own press for distribution only among the…

EDUCATION xvii. HIGHER EDUCATION Higher education in the modern sense was first introduced in Persia under the Pahlavis (1925-78) and through a continuing process of reform played a central role in social change in the country. After a government initiative at the beginning of the 19th century, when Persians were…

EDUCATION xix. TEACHERS’-TRAINING COLLEGES Dānešgāh-e tarbīat-e moʿallem, the oldest institution for educating teachers in Persia, was founded as Dār al-moʿallemīn-e markazī (see xviii, above) in Tehran in 1336/1918. It has gone through various phases and changes of name since. Its purpose was to train primary-school teachers, and the curriculum was…

EDUCATION xviii. TEACHERS’-TRAINING SCHOOLS The first institution specializing in the training of elementary-school teachers in Persia, Dār al-moʿallemīn-e markazī (Central Teachers’ College), was founded in a private house in Tehran in 1297/1918. The first director was Abu’l-Ḥasan Forūḡī (q.v.; d. 1959), younger brother of the well-known statesman Ḏakāʾ-al-Molk Forūḡī (q.v.;…

EDUCATION xx. ADULT EDUCATION The first adult-literacy classes in Persia were organized by constitutionalists at primary schools in Tehran and provincial towns in 1327/1909, but those efforts did not outlast the chaos of the period following the Constitutional Revolution (q.v. v; Ḥekmat, p. 376). The first national campaign for adult…

EDUCATION xxi. EDUCATION ABROAD The Qajar period. Persian awareness of a need to learn from Europeans arose in the wake of major military defeats and territorial losses in two wars with Russia in the early 19th century. In 1226/1811 Crown Prince ʿAbbās Mīrzā (q.v.) and his vizier, Mīrzā Bozorg Qāʾem-Maqām,…