Iran's new academic year opens on Wednesday against a backdrop of tuition fees that in some cases nearly tripled over the summer, with enrollment falling at private schools across Tehran as war fears, sanctions and the continued collapse of the rial squeeze family budgets.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian marked the start of the academic year by ringing the school bell at a girls' primary school in Tehran on Monday.
The Ministry of Education has instructed schools to prioritise in-person teaching after periods of online learning during previous phases of the war.
The ministry also issued a directive capping tuition increases at private schools at 35% for the new academic year, setting fees across the country at between 14 million and 145 million tomans (€53–€549). In practice, the cap is not being observed.
Bita, a final-year high school student in eastern Tehran, told Euronews she paid 80 million tomans (€303) last year and 220 million tomans (€833) this year — a 175% increase.
"I'm in my final year of high school. Students in lower grades pay somewhat less. We also have to pay a separate fee for pamphlets and school-printed textbooks, which comes to around 20 million tomans (€76)," Bita said.
"Right now, for a senior at a private high school, their family has to pay roughly 250 million tomans (€947) for their education. Of course, in the affluent neighborhoods in the northern part of the city, this cost goes even higher," she explained.
Although the rial is Iran’s official currency, everyday pricing and transactions are conducted in tomans — where 1 toman equals 10 rials — with the open market rate on Monday standing at slightly over 264,000 tomans (or 2,640,000 rials) per euro.
Maryam, 57, works as an accountant at several private primary schools in southern Tehran.
She said tuition at one school she works with rose from 36 million tomans (€136) two years ago to 85 million tomans (€322) this year. She has also seen declining enrolments driven not only by cost but by security concerns.
"At one of these schools many pupils have not enrolled because it is opposite a police station and their parents worry that if the war starts again their children will not be safe there," Maryam told Euronews.
"Their other concern is that classes may move online and they are not willing to pay heavy fees for virtual lessons at non-profit schools."
One school in Tehran's Shahrak-e Valiasr district closed entirely after failing to reach the minimum enrolment required to operate, Maryam added.
Luxury stationery bundles
Official statistics put total enrolment in Iran's fee-charging schools and universities at approximately 3.3 million students, of whom nearly 70% pay tuition.
Total enrolment has fallen from 4.4 million students over the past decade, a decline the ministry partly attributes to reduced purchasing power.
Mehra, a third-term law student at the Islamic Azad University in Tehran, said her combined fixed and variable tuition doubled from 11 million tomans (€41) to 22 million tomans (€83).
The costs extend beyond tuition. A basic school supplies bundle now ranges from 3 million tomans (€11.30) to 17 million tomans (€64.30).
A 500-sheet ream of CopyMax A4 paper — commonly used by university students for lecture notes — starts at 975,000 tomans (€3.69).
Recycled newsprint A4 paper starts at 390,000 tomans (€1.48) but is considered unsuitable for school work. Prices also vary significantly depending on where in Tehran you buy supplies.
Arya and his wife Roksana, who run a stationery shop in the small town of Vahidieh near Shahriar, on the outskirts of Karaj, told Euronews that although they source their stock from the same wholesale markets as sellers across Tehran and Karaj, they cannot match big-city prices.
Arya said the price of a quality notebook rose from 85,000 tomans (€0.32) last year to 180,000 tomans (€0.68) this year, an increase of around 100%.
Roksana said customer numbers had dropped but added that some families were simply using supplies left over from the previous year when many classes were held online and materials went largely unused.
"Our customer numbers have dropped, but that doesn't mean students aren't getting school supplies this year. For instance, my own son is using leftover notebooks from last year," Roksana told Euronews.
"Plus, with classes held online for much of the previous school year, students barely used their backpacks, shoes, and uniforms. As a result, families don't see the need to buy new ones this year," she concluded.
