School Students Leave Iran Amid Gloomy Future Prospects
The emigration crisis in Iran has now reached school students who see no future for themselves in the country.
The emigration crisis in Iran has now reached school students who see no future for themselves in the country.
In a report on Wednesday, Etemad daily quoted a teacher as saying that the "students are disappointed."
According to her, the parents of a girl in year nine paid about $12,000 to enroll her in a school affiliated with a university in Toronto, Canada.
She said another reason for the migration of students is the law "urging them to pay thousands of dollars to release their bachelor's and master's degrees".
The government has stepped up pressures and restrictions on students and graduates. The health ministry in September increased the exit permit bond for medical, dental and pharmacy students to $5,000 per year.
Late in November, the parliament presented a proposal to ban students who participate in protests from traveling abroad for ten years. Recently, the Ministry of Science Research and Technology has also approved regulations that would increase the costs of receiving university degrees six to 10 times.
"Families say the amounts they will have to pay in the future to release the degrees, they can spend ... to send their children to study in other countries," said the teacher in the interview with Etemad.
The number of Iranians leaving the country has increased dramatically in recent years due to economic hardship and unemployment leaving a potential brain drain crisis looming.
However, the Iranian government, including the Ministry of Education, has not published any numbers on the migration of students abroad.
