To lessen the effect of the school closures on the education system, Iran’s Education Ministry has introduced an online app roughly translating to “Happy Application”, the Social Network of Students (Shad in Persian), and presents daily lessons for different grades on state TV.
Mobile learning is a growing trend in Iran, like elsewhere, and with ongoing closure of schools in the country, the ministry has now pushed ahead with plans to keep the kids and teenagers busy with their new online platform.
The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology required companies that provide home internet access to increase network speed fourfold. The government also developed self-study packages and distributed them to students living in areas with poor connections or those cut off from service.
The locally designed app can serve 16 million students, including those with physical impairments, but its official launch was delayed to ensure security after recent incidents in which information of millions of Iranians was leaked.
“We’ve been asked to install some specific apps so my daughter can continue her education,” Fahimeh said. She said that even in Tehran, not all children have smartphones. Some have to use their parents’ mobile devices to access course material.
The full and original version of this article was published on Al-Monitor on April 17.