DUBAI: Iran has banned the teaching of English in primary schools, a senior education official said, after the country’s Supreme Leader said early learning of the language opened the way to a Western “cultural invasion”.
“Teaching English in government and non-government primary schools in the official curriculum is against laws and regulations,” Mehdi Navid-Adham, head of the state-run High Education Council, told state television late on Saturday.
The assumption is that in primary education the groundwork for the Iranian culture of the students is laid,” he said.
The teaching of English usually starts in middle school in Iran, at the ages of 12 to 14, but some primary schools below that age also have English classes.
Some children also attend private language institutes after their school day, while children from more privileged families attending non-government schools receive English tuition.
Iran’s Islamic leaders have often warned about the dangers of a “cultural invasion”, and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, voiced outrage in 2016 over the “teaching of the English language spreading to nursery schools”.
Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, said in a speech to teachers: “That does not mean opposition to learning a foreign language, but [this is the] promotion of a foreign culture in the country and among children, young adults and youths.”
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