Basic Student Rights within the Iranian Legal System

Having a clear set of basic Iranian students’ legal rights could serve as a practical guideline to commitments and responsibilities of teachers, administrators, and others dealing with education. To this end, all existing legal documents related to the topic were content analyzed. The result has been a set of fourteen principle areas which can be categorized into three subsets depending on the extent to which they are referred to and their source of extraction. One subset includes those that are clearly stated in the country’s official law, such as free access to basic education, physical education, and higher education. The second subset contains those rights confirmed in these same set of laws and include social security, freedom of choice as for the type and method of education, the use of mother language, academic security, equal rights, and freedom of socio-cultural and political activities. The third subset includes those that are clearly stated in the ministerial rules and regulations, such as the rights to artistic development, adequate leisure time facilities, academic guidance, and facilities for children with special needs. It is suggested that the derived conceptual model be reexamined by law experts and be modified based on their feedback.