The Second Meeting of the School Renovation Administrations’ Policy Council for Women Donors to School Construction
The meeting was held at the Tehran office of the School
Renovation Organization, and attended by its director Dr Rakhshanimehr , the advisor
and chair of the Iranian Council for Women Donors to School Construction, Dr.
Khadijeh Neyzari, a number of NGOs and a number of women philanthropists.
At the meeting Dr. Rakhshanimehr underlined the need for school
complexes and boarding schools, stating that due to poor construction site
selection some 50% of Iran’s schools are able to serve less than 45 pupils each
while some schools remain completely without pupils.
Council Chairperson, Ms. Neyzari, noted the prominent role
of women in school construction projects with their share of involvement increasing
from 13% to 17% over the 2017-2018 period. She thanked women representatives
for their efforts at provincial level.
Dr. Shahri indicated that all of the IRR2060 billion funding
allocated to donor initiated joint projects for Iranian calendar year ending in
March 2018 had already been delivered by the School Renovation Organization and
that the figure for the next year would be IRR4110 Billion, nearly matching
donor funding.
Dr. Shirzad reported that the per capita educational space
in Iran stands at about 5m2, whereas the figure for disadvantaged
regions of the country remains less than 1m2 per student. Meanwhile
the standard per capita educational space needed should be 13.8m2.
The deficiency is better understood considering the fact that there are 14
million school children for whom the additional space has to be provided.
The meeting ended with plaques of appreciation being awarded
to individual donors and NGOs, with Ms. Ghorbani accepting the plaque awarded
to Hami Association.