Across France, angry schoolchildren have taken to the streets, protesting against crumbling classrooms, overcrowded schools, and chronic shortages of teachers. Their demonstrations reflect growing frustration with an education system struggling to meet the expectations of a new generation. Yet, as the new academic year gets underway in Iran, French pupils might be astonished to discover the scale of the educational catastrophe confronting their Iranian counterparts.

For millions of Iranian families, education has become another casualty of economic hardship, soaring inflation, and deepening poverty. The simple act of sending a child to school has become a financial ordeal. Meanwhile, the authorities remain preoccupied with ideological conformity, political surveillance, and suppressing dissent. Around 16.5 million Iranian children were expected to begin the 2026 academic year, including more than 1.15 million entering primary school for the first time. Behind these impressive figures lies a deeply troubling reality. For impoverished families, the cost of schoolbooks, stationery, uniforms, shoes, and transport can consume an impossible proportion of household income.

A basic package of school supplies now costs between 30 million ($15) and 170 million ($85) rials. One stationery retailer reported that the price of a decent notebook had more than doubled in a year, rising from 850,000 to 1.8 million rials. With much of the 90 million Iranian population struggling to survive below the international poverty line of $2.15 per day, imagine the anguish of parents forced to choose between buying food for their children and purchasing the notebooks they need to learn. Iran's constitution guarantees free education through secondary school.

Even the state-affiliated Tasnim news agency has exposed demands for payments in supposedly free public schools. In Kashan, one father reported being asked for 50 million rials to enroll his daughter. Another parent described paying 120........

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