President Hassan Rouhani reopened schools in Iran via video teleconference on Saturday September 5 despite warnings by health officials and concerns expressed by parents.

Hossein Ali Shahriari, the chairman of Iranian Parliament's Health Committee harshly criticized Rouhani for endangering the lives of millions of Iranian children and young adults by insisting on an early reopening while health officials say  the number of coronavirus cases in most provinces are on the rise.

Meanwhile hundreds of parents lashed out at Rouhani and his education minister on social media for poor planning and lack of understanding about the serious situation of the pandemic.

Rouhani was particularly criticized for not going to a school for the reopening fearing that he might catch the virus, and at the same time sending millions of students to busy classrooms that defy social distancing rules and are devoid of proper sanitization.

Speaking in his daily briefing at the COVID-19 Task Force meeting, Rouhani insisted on his paranoid view, saying that "the enemies want to stop all activities including educational activities in Iran," adding that "this year, schools in Iran should operate in the same way as military garrisons."

However, he said sarcastically: "We are not going to handcuff students and send them  to school. But if they want to lag behind others, they can choose not to go to school for a year." The statement was utterly meant to scare the students to go to school despite the danger of the pandemic.

This comes while a teacher speaking to Iran International TV on Saturday said that many students in most parts of Iran cannot afford face masks.

Until a few days before the early reopening September 5, two weeks before the usual date on September 23, families and even the ministry of education were still not sure if the Rouhani was serious about the reopening schools. An official in Tehran told the people on TV to call the schools in the morning of September 5 to find out if the plan was going to go ahead.

Some social media users and parents who phoned in to IITV speculated that the government wishes to open the schools to get tuition from parents and after getting money from them, they would once again return to the plan to hold online classes as they did during the summer.

Another factor is the impossibility of distant learning for all students that was to an extent implemented in the past few months with the cooperation of the state TV.

But critics say the state television is a major stakeholder of distant learning applications and prefers to get the people's money selling the applications and advertising rather than to provide free education on one of its several dozens of channels.

In addition, most the 14 million school students cannot afford computers and applications, so distant learning will be a privilege for some but not a full substitute for in-class learning, if the government does not help families acquire hardware and software.

But the government does not have plans to assist the all students in getting computers and the applications needed.

Iran analyst Ehsan Mehrabi told Iran International Saturday morning that it appears Rouhani believes in the idea of herd immunity. 

The mother of a student told the channel that some children are too young to understand the safety requirements under the pandemic. Meanwhile she said that the application introduced for distant learning does not work.

A university professor speaking to Iran International voiced concern that after the reopening, "surely we are going to see more COVID-19 cases in schools and later at homes." The professor suggested that people should teach their children at home.

Meanwhile, the Iranian medical council has called on Thursday for stopping the reopening process.  In a letter to the COVID-19 Task Force, Abbas Aghazadeh, a top official of the medical council warned that the early reopening "might endanger the lives of millions of children."  However, the Rouhani administration simply ignored the medical advice.