The Impact of Reza Shah's Nationalist and Centralist Policy on the Educational Status of Religious Minority Schools

During Reza Shah's reign, the policies of centralization, authoritarian modernity, and national unity led to reforms in the field of education. This period is considered as an important period in the history of Iran due to the efforts leading the society towards modern education in the shadow of nationalism and centralism. The present article seeks to answer this question, "What effects did the nationalist and centralist policies of Reza Shah era have on the situation of schools of religious minorities (Armenians, Zoroastrians and Jews)?" This work implemented a descriptive-analytical method and relied on the available documents. At that time, religious minority schools were affected by these two policies. In some educational programs, schools activities were not in line with the new educational policy, and there was resistance from the minority community, which challenged the schools. The findings of this study show that education among religious minorities was affected by the new changes in terms of Persian language teaching, curriculum, school names, holidays and extracurricular activities. The closure for some schools was permanent and their students merged into public schools, and for some schools, it was temporary (one or more months) until they were required to implement the ministry programs. The reason for their resistance to the new educational policy was the tendency towards educational independence and the fear of losing their identity, and the consequence was the relative control of the government and the dissatisfaction of the minorities with the rule of the time.