Iran is planning to treat the 6-years-old primary students, who do not speak Persian but rather their own mother tongue, as “disabled,” according to new program reportedly demanded by Iran’s Supreme Leader.
The country’s educational authorities have introduced a new plan called Persian-language Quality Assurance to test the ability of new students in Persian language when applying for primary schools. The plan has already been tested in some schools.
According to the plan, children who fail the Persian test at the time of registration will be considered and treated as students suffering from “blindness, Deafness or other disabilities,” in case of applying new rules.
A large population of Iranians are non-Persian speakers including Kurds, Lors, Baluchs, Turks and Arabs, who have been fighting for decades to protect mother tongue as a universal human right.
Iran has only permitted the learning of Persian as “official language” in schools. Under the Persian-dominated educational system, the bilingual students have already been suffering from violation of their basic rights.
