The smallest School in The World
Chris Barrett
From 7am, Monday to Thursday Hosseien (11), Parisa (9), and Mahdi (8) walk the short distance to their school situated on the east coast of Iran in a village called Kalo with a population of 30 consisting of 7 families.
The tiny fishing
Picturesque location apart this school is no ordinary school in a country more synonymous to a western perspective by its politics rather than education. The shortened journey to school taken by Kalo’s 3 students, rather than the 15 mile walk to their old school in the neighbouring town of Dayyer, was made possible by their teacher 22 year old AdulMohammad Sherani
In early 2008 as part of his national service Mohammad decided to act on his dream of being a teacher and quite possibly went about achieving his dream on the smallest scale imaginable.
Deciding where to apply himself with a deep desire to make a difference Muhammad decided to take on the task of setting up his own school for the benefit of his students families saving the parents valuable time and money on the school run..
Full of energy in an experiment with the internet Mohammad utilised his computer and writing skills to create an award winning web blog about his life as a solider teacher. Through Mohammed’s documentation of the school Kalo became known to the Iranian public as well as being accessible to many in the world via his blog. His blog’s English version, gained the attention of UNESCO who later declared the school as the smallest school in the world.
With the UNESCO title and media attention in
Muhammad, Hossein, Parisa and Mahdi received letters, teaching aids, chocolates and text books from all over the world and even saw the Iranian minister of education donated his own personal computer from his office as a gift to the ever increasing fame of the school in the quiet fishing village
Just as they [the village] thought they had had their lot a private sponsor from Bushur, a town a few hours drive north, had put forward the money for a new building which is currently being built a few metres away from the existing 3 metre x 4 metre class room.
Indebted to the donations the school was receiving from around the world and his country Muhammad continues to update his blog; www.dayyertashbad.blogfa.com , daily… writing updates on school life and the schools gratitude to the kindness of the worlds people.
Asked what he (mohammad) would like to do after his 2 years national service he replied…’i'd like to reach out to help my home towns (Dayyer) community as far as I can for the good of the people, improving the education of the people’.
Continuing to unearth the desire of this young entrepreneurial soldier I asked what the importance of teaching was for him …’The importance for me is that the students grow up well equipped for this breathing Iran that they will live in…its vital that they have a good understanding of modern technology even in a small fishing village such as this…from that basis they can form their own opinion and education of Iran, themselves and the world’.