The head of Iran’s Welfare Organization has warned preschool and daycare centres against teaching “immoral programs such as dancing” to children.
The Fars News Agency reports that Valiollah Nasr, Director General of Tehran Province Welfare, said on Tuesday: “Educational programs must be in line with Islamic principles.”
He added that the preschools and daycares have been given set curricula and cannot teach “immoral programs.”
The head of the Welfare Organization announced that one of his office’s top priorities is to make sure educational programs are under control and in line with “Islamic and Sharia principles.”
He expressed disappointment that some daycares have incorporated dancing and singing in their programs and warned that this year they will be dealt with severely.
The Ministry of Education has also announced that preschool boys and girls are not to mix together in classes, and coed classes may only be allowed at centres that lack the necessary enrolment.
Preschool in Iran is an optional two-year course for children aged four and five that prepares them for elementary school.
After the post-election protests of 2009, Iran’s Supreme Leader pointed at the education system as a hotbed of growing dissent and maintained that the education system had to be cleansed of all forms of Western influence.
Therefore, in the past two year, the Education Ministry has been engaged in an extensive overhaul of the education system, with talk of gender segregation in preschools as well as universities and a reassessment of the curricula to make them more in line with Islamic principles.
