A Study On The Educational Achievements And Limitations Of Iran’s Pahlavi Dynasty(1941-1979)

Iran is a country that attaches great importance to education,both in the pre-Islamic era and the Islamic era.For thousands of years,Iranian education has made indelible contributions to the country and the nation.In modern times,with the decline of Iranian traditional education and the constant stimulation of Western countries,the Iran’s ruling class began to learn from the west and make some reforms,which inevitably led to profound changes in the field of education in Iran.Since the beginning of the Qajar dynasty,there have been some new changes in the field of education,and attempts have been made to modernize education.Since the First World War,the important role of education in nation building has been widely recognized.After the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty,Reza Khan realized that education is conducive to safeguarding national unity and consolidating state power.Education is regarded as an important means of realizing national modernization,nationalization,secularization and westernization reform in the field of education.Reza khan’s education reform laid the foundation for modern education in Iran.However,due to the influence of the international and domestic situation at that time,the education reform promoted by Reza Khan was hindered by many layers,and many policies were not implemented.With the outbreak of the Second World War,Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi stepped onto the stage of history.When king Pahlavi ascended the throne,he was deeply influenced by his father’s educational ideas and realized the great potential of education for national construction.In his view,education is not only a tool for Iran to modernize,but also a powerful tool to strengthen its ideology,promote the country’s progress and extend its rule.Education is the best national investment.Along with the acceleration of the urbanization process in Iran,the people’s demand for education has also risen steadily.Benefit from the growth of oil wealth,the Iranian government’s financial support for education is increasing.Under the stimulation of both domestic and foreign factors,king Pahlavi carriedout a series of reforms in Iran’s primary education,secondary education and higher education,in an attempt to make Iran a leading and powerful country in the Middle East through education.After more than 30 years of development,Iran has made great progress in education.From the original closed,backward and conservative traditional education to the modern education,the scale of education has expanded rapidly,and a more standardized education system has been established from the central to the local,which has improved the national education level of Iran and cultivated the modernization of the country.A large number of talents are conducive to maintaining the unity of Iran’s multi-ethnic countries.In short,Iran has made great contribution to the modernization of the country.However,due to the constraints of the Pahlavi dynasty monarchy and the deep-rooted traditional educational concepts,the early development of the Pahlavi dynasty also had many shortcomings.First of all,in the education reform of shah Pahlavi of Iran,the development of education was deeply influenced by political factors,and the process of education reform was negatively correlated with the strength of the shah’s political status.In addition,the level of education development is uneven,and the differences between urban and rural areas,different levels and different genders still exist.Finally,Iran’s level of teaching and research needs to be improved,and it has not kept pace with the Times.Another important point is that there is blind westernization in the education reform due to the failure to deal with the relationship between tradition and modernity.Islam is the basis for Iran to maintain the existence of its national character.However,in the educational reform,the Islamic nature of Iran has not been fully taken into account.The blind westernization and excessive imitation of the western education model will weaken the national character of Iran if Iran is eager to get rid of the influence of Islam.The superficial introduction of western values under the new educational model inevitably conflicts with the traditional Iranian ideology,which easily leads to frustration,anger and rebellion,and even becomes one of the factors in the outbreak of the Islamic revolution.