A Survey on the History of Textbooks Developments in Iran (1851-2011AD)

After the establishment of Dar-ol-Fonoon (1230SH/1851AD) and following the employment of foreign professors in Iran, the compilation and translation of textbooks began. The content of these textbooks included modern sciences and techniques that were not popular in Iran yet. The first innovation that took place in these books dealt with the translation of improper foreign terms and words into proper scientific Persian ones. Forty-eight years later, with the emergence of educational system and the foundation of new elementary and high schools, new textbooks were published by the founders, principals and teachers of these schools. After Constitutional Revolution, and with the formation Supreme Council of Knowledge Ministry, textbooks have been written according to the program of Knowledge Ministry since 1297SH/1918AD. Since 1310SH/1931AD the elementary textbooks, and since 1317SH/1938AD high school textbooks have been respectively published by the Ministry of Culture, the Bureau of Writing In 1312SH/1933AD, government had the Supreme Council of Knowledge Ministry to ratify the by-law of the Press Bureau, and in this way practically introduced a new order to the compilation of textbooks. In 1320SH/1941AD, the political-economic incapacity of the government led the compilation and publication of the textbooks to private sector. This trend made many teachers and professors to write and translate textbooks. Open competition in textbook compilation and publication caused several similar titles for a single subject-matter. This open competition led to a chaos and finally was replaced by governmental monopoly. Later on, textbook compilation and publication was assigned respectively to Iran’s Organization of textbooks and the Educational Research and Programming Organization of the Ministry of Education.