The head of the education ministry’s Literacy Movement says 67,000 Iranian students are leaving the school system at the elementary level.
ISNA reports that according to Mohammad Mehdizadeh, Sistan-Baluchistan province alone accounts for 20 percent of those dropouts.
He went on to add that literacy is a problem for 9.7 million people in the country, and 143,000 of those are between the ages of 16 and 18.
Common reasons given for dropping out are the need to enter the job market, aging schools and a lack of educational facilities in rural areas.
Mehdizadeh said 3.5 million Iranians under 50 are struggling with literacy problems.
Mazandaran province has the country’s highest literacy rate: 95.7 percent.
