In summer 2025, Iran completed the first phase of a national programme to train 100,000 school teachers in AI concepts and teaching methods, equipping them to incorporate AI topics into lessons and guide students in AI projects. Separately, government authorities have announced that AI will become a compulsory discipline across all universities regardless of the students’ field of study, representing a significant expansion of AI literacy beyond technical and engineering programmes into humanities, social sciences, and other disciplines.
Iran’s approach has drawn on the AI education models of China and Russia, analysing their curricula to inform its own design. The Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution and a newly established National Artificial Intelligence Organisation are the principal institutional actors overseeing AI education and governance policy.
Who it affects: All university students in Iran, regardless of subject area, once the compulsory AI module is implemented. The 100,000 teachers trained in the first phase are positioned to deliver AI instruction in secondary schools. The scale of the teacher training programme is substantial relative to the overall teaching workforce.
What is notably missing: No binding national law mandates AI literacy as a legal entitlement across the K-12 school system. The university AI requirement appears to be a ministerial directive rather than enacted legislation, and no independent verification of the training programme’s quality or curriculum content has been published. International sanctions constrain Iran’s access to AI infrastructure, software tools, and global research collaboration, creating a material gap between policy ambition and delivery capacity.