Analyzing an Preschool Education Policies in Iran

An appropriate policy-making for preschool education is one of the key instruments to moves toward an educated child and sustainable development. This evaluative study aims at analyzing and criticizing the policies of preschool education in Iran based on five criteria including accessibility, affordability, accountability, sustainability, and social justice in relevant documents. The results showed that the accessibility of Iranian children to preschool education was lower than in developing and developed countries. Additionally, the public financial investment of preschool education sector was trivial and also supportiveness of disadvantaged families’_ children had inconsiderable importance in implemented and enacted policies. Moreover, the accountability culture and information clarity had not common and inequality among advantages and disadvantageous areas as well as various policy-making organizations had basically created more barriers to achieve social justice in the Iranian education system. In sum, Preschool education policies are implementing with fluctuation in Iran as well as its importance among the lawmakers and policymakers is unknown.