Iran’s children return to school under the shadow of war

The Shajareh-ye Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, which was bombed on the first day of the United States-Israel war on Iran, killing ۱۲۰ children, still lies in ruins.

A new building has been built in its place, but the school day is short with students attending for just an hour or so to hear the bell ring for the start of the new school year.

Online learning has become the medium of schooling since the US and Israel launched their war on February ۲۸.

Children began returning to classrooms last week for the start of the school year for in-person learning.

But in Iran’s southern provinces, including Minab, classes at schools and universities will remain online for the first two weeks due to the threat of renewed US bombing.

A sense of fear is still palpable in Iran after the harrowing experiences of the Minab school bombing. When the war started, all schools in Iran were closed as US and Israeli jets carried out surprise air raids on the country.

Shajareh-ye Tayyebeh was starting the school week on the Saturday that the bombing began. Students were being evacuated when a double-tap US strike near the school killed at least ۱۲۰ children and ۳۵ adults.

Parents across Iran still remember their cars crawling through traffic-jammed roads as they tried to reach their children and repeated calls they made to the schools for information. Some abandoned their cars in the middle of the street and travelled by foot.

“I can’t shake the anxiety that if the war starts again and they call us and tell us to come pick up our children from school, how long it will take me to get myself to the school and bring my child home,” Meysam, the father of an ۱۱-year-old in Tehran, told Al Jazeera. Like other parents who spoke to Al Jazeera, he used just his first name due to security concerns.

Hossein, the father of a first-grade student in Tehran, said these memories lingered as he dropped his children off for their first day at school.

“Today, too, when I left my child at school and went back to work, I couldn’t shake the thought that the war might start again and a missile could hit the school,” he told Al Jazeera.

Faramarz, a ۳۹-year-old teacher from Minab, lost his wife and one of his children in the school attack.

“We were a family of four whose life was intertwined with the school. Half of this family is gone now. I live with this lump in my throat. I feel like I have nothing left to lose,” he told Al Jazeera.

“In the schoolbag of my seven-year-old daughter, who was killed at school, was nothing but a handful of dreams that no longer exist. Schools are reopening, but I feel that my life will never return to normal.”

Online learning

The Ministry of Education said ۱,۲۸۸ schools were directly or indirectly damaged during the war. Many of these have been repaired and new classrooms built, it said.

The ministry is also introducing a “Sacrifice and Martyrdom Bell” to the school curriculum to help students learn about the impact of the two recent US-Israel wars on Iran.

Perhaps anticipating another round of fighting with the US, the Education Ministry said online learning infrastructure has been strengthened so schools will face fewer difficulties if they are forced to return to virtual teaching.

But there are already concerns among teachers and parents about the impact that months of online learning have had on their children.

Amir, a ۳۷-year-old high school teacher who works on the outskirts of Tehran, said four of the nine months of the past school year were spent online due to the war.

This virtual education damaged student-teacher relations and made establishing routines, which he said are essential for children’s wellbeing, almost impossible.

“We are planning our lessons while being advised to carry out as many group activities as possible during the first few months of the school year because there is concern that the war could start again and education could once again be moved online,” Amir told Al Jazeera.

Zeinab, an elementary teacher in Tehran, said concerns about a new cycle of violence are affecting teaching.

“It is very difficult to keep students together when you can hear fighter jets flying overhead,” she told Al Jazeera. “But there are other concerns as well, for example, if education moves online again. Students who do not have access to the internet will be left out of school.”

A video released on the first day of school showed one of the students from Shajareh-ye Tayyebeh speaking about his sorrow that departed friends will not attend classes.

“I’m not happy that I can no longer see the close friends who lived next to our house,” the boy said. “I miss them.”