Iran has banned the teaching of English in primary schools after Islamic leaders warned that learning the language opened the way to a Western 'cultural invasion'. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has reportedly stated that early learning of the English language paves the way western “cultural invasion” of Iran…

The head of the state-run High Education Council, Mehdi Navid-Adham, said to local TV on Sunday that the English classes in primary schools are “against laws and regulations.” He added that English was no longer part of the educational curriculum without specifying whether the language could be taught privately. "Teaching English in government and non-government primary schools in the official curriculum is against laws and regulations," Mehdi Navid-Adham, head of the state-run High Education Council, told state television late on Saturday. “The assumption is that in primary education the groundwork for the Iranian culture of the students is laid.”

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English instruction normally starts in middle school for most Iranians, and it was unclear whether a ban on primary schools would have any other impact on the country. The Iranian leadership has repeatedly warned about the dangers of the Western “cultural invasion.” In 2016, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iran has reached “a stage that teaching the English language has spread to nursery schools.”

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“That does not mean opposition to learning a foreign language, but (this is the) promotion of a foreign culture in the country and among children, young adults and youths,” he said. The video, featuring Navid-Adham speaking about the ban, was posted on Twitter by Fars.Children start learning English in middle school in Iran when they are about 12-14 years old.
Iran enforces a ban on teaching English in elementary schools, calling it a "cultural invasion" by the West.