Iran forbids English lessons being taught in primary school

IRAN has banned the teaching of English in primary schools, a senior education official said, after Islamic leaders warned that early learning of the language opened the way to a Western “cultural invasion”.

Mehdi Navid-adham, head of the state-run High Education Council, told state television that the ban is based on the assumption that, in primary education, “the groundwork for the Iranian culture of the students is laid”.

While there was no mention of the announcement being linked to more than a week of protests against the clerical establishment and government, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have said that unrest was also fomented by foreign enemies.

The teaching of English usually starts in middle school in Iran, around the ages of 12 to 14, but some primary schools also have English classes.

Some children also attend private language institutes after school and many children from more privileged families attending non-government schools receive English tuition from day care through high school.

Iran’s Islamic leaders have often warned about the dangers of a “cultural invasion”, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei voiced outrage in 2016 over the “teaching of English spreading to nursery schools”.

Iranian officials said 22 people were killed and more than 1,000 arrested during the protests that spread to more than 80 cities and rural towns, as thousands of young and working-class Iranians expressed their anger at graft, unemployment and a deepening gap between rich and poor.

A video of the announcement of the ban was widely circulated on social media yesterday.