TEHRAN (Dispatches) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has inaugurated a total of 376 educational projects with an investment worth over $113 million as the country keeps expanding its academic and training facilities to respond to a growing demand for educational services from its young population.
Using a video conference call on Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated a total of 376 educational projects across the country, said his website in a report which added that a bulk of 23.75 trillion rials in investment spent on the projects had come from government resources.
The projects cover a wide range of services in both primary and higher education systems, including schools, universities and research labs, said the report.
Rouhani hailed the expansion of Iran’s academic and research infrastructure, saying the number of research laboratories in the country had nearly doubled to over 14,700 units during his two terms in office beginning 2013.
He said Iran had spent an average of over 100 million euros per year on construction of new labs in recent years.
"I think it has been a great achievement that the government has managed to earmark tens of millions of euros to labs under (the current) difficult financial and forex conditions,” said Rouhani making a reference to the US sanctions that hamper Iran’s access to hard currency revenues.
The Iranian president said charitable funding for construction of schools is also on rise across Iran and especially in underprivileged regions in east and southeast of the country.
Among the project opened on Thursday were 20 new schools built by a charity organization in the southeastern of province of Sistan and Baluchestan.
Rouhani’s website said the new educational projects would create a total of 905 permanent jobs.