Brussels - Paris: Europe and the Arabs
An investigation conducted by the Iran Open Data Organization revealed a large gap between the salaries of teachers in Iran and those in other countries. In 2024, the minimum monthly wage for Iranian teachers will reach ten million tomans, equivalent to about 159 US dollars based on the average exchange rate in April in The open market. According to what was stated in a media statement distributed by the Iranian opposition “Mujahedin Khalq Organization,” and we received a copy of it this Saturday morning. The statement added, “At the same time, primary school teachers in Turkey saw an increase in their monthly salaries to 39,781 liras, which is equivalent to 1,223 US dollars based on On the current exchange rate.
A comparison between the minimum annual teacher salary in Iran and that in countries with stable economies shows a significant difference. The annual salary of the Iranian teacher amounted to $1,908, based on the stable dollar price of 63 thousand tomans.
On the other hand, OECD data indicate that the salaries of primary school teachers in countries with stable economies range between 14,000 and 70,000 dollars annually, which represents a difference of up to 35 times the Iranian figure.
Iranian teacher organizations have called for salary increases and better benefits for teachers and retirees for years, along with free education. Although the regime implemented the classification law in 2022, which raised the salaries of public teachers, the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers Union Organizations and other groups oppose its implementation and point out the exclusion of some union activists.
In his statement on May 1, educational expert Mohammad Reza Niki Nejad confirmed that doubling teachers’ salaries from 15 million tomans to 30 million tomans will not solve the basic problems in education, pointing to the need to provide livelihoods and improve teachers’ dignity. He pointed out that these necessary conditions have not yet been met, which leads to continuing difficulties in the lives of teachers and the quality of education.
In the context of global efforts to secure teachers’ livelihoods, Niki Nejad pointed out that teachers’ salaries around the world are usually sufficient to manage a normal life, pointing to examples from New Zealand, where a teacher’s salary is $90,000 annually, and from the United States, where the average is $44,000. dollars, and from Finland, where it amounts to about 40 thousand dollars annually.