Pupils began returning last week, but schools and universities in southern provinces, including Minab, will remain online for two weeks over fears of renewed US bombing. At Minab’s rebuilt school, students gathered for about an hour to mark the new school year.
The Shajareh-ye Tayyebeh school was bombed on February 28, the first day of the US-Israel war. Al Jazeera reports that a US double-tap strike near it killed at least 120 children and 35 adults as students were being evacuated. The Education Ministry said 1,288 schools were directly or indirectly damaged during the war; many have been repaired and new classrooms built. The ministry is also introducing a “Sacrifice and Martyrdom Bell” to teach pupils about the impact of the two recent US-Israel wars on Iran.
The ministry says it has strengthened online-learning infrastructure in case schools return to virtual lessons. A Tehran teacher said four of the previous school year’s nine months were online, damaging teacher-student ties and making routines difficult; another warned that students without internet access could be left out. Parents and teachers described lingering anxiety about renewed fighting.
