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Nomadic Teacher Training Center (Nomadic Daneshsara)
This center was the most influential on the nomadic education and the future of the nomadic society. The Ministry of Culture, after a visit in 1955, decided on a requirement that teachers must be the graduates of Daneshsara. In 1956, a number of non-nomadic teachers- graduated from the basic and agriculture teacher training center- were sent to nomadic schools to teach the children. However, this decision was failed since the teachers could not live in a nomadic society and, therefore, the last resort was to trust local teachers and their limited knowledge though it was rejected by the Ministry of Culture.
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| Bahmanbeigi writes: "there is no doubt that bringing the urban and metropolitan cultural system to nomadic areas could not have any positive effects. If the nomadic education was corrupted with uniformity and nomadic and urban children were taught in the same school and by the same teacher, failure would be inevitable." In 1956, he managed to get the permission of establishing a nomadic Daneshsara and train 60 teachers a year. The first 6 admission years was limited to male candidates, though after the sixth year female candidates were also admitted to the program. |
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| After 22 years of training teachers, a number of 8764 teachers including 946 female teachers were trained by 1978 which set the core of education and literacy development in nomadic areas.
Nomadic Education Monitors
Due to complications in compensating the nomadic teachers which was mostly funded by the wealthy nomadic families, the teachers lost their will and Bahmanbeigi did everything possible to continue educating the nomadic children and prevent the closure of schools.
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Ali Sohrabi in his book "Education in Iran's nomads", published by the University of Shiraz, quotes Pavel Burker saying "in order to illustrate the values of nomadic schools, Bahmanbeigi managed to plan a visit by a team from the Ministry of Education in 1955. The ministry was impressed and therefore, decided to finance the salary of the teachers as well as Bahmanbeigi."
Though the teachers' payment obstacles was handled, the ministry believed that the nomadic teachers were not trained and qualified enough and had to be replaced by teachers from cities.
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| Shortly, these teachers turned to be incapable of adapting to a nomadic life and communication with the society. Bahmanbeigi warned the ministry that if they did not allow him to establish a nomadic teacher training center, he would terminate the program altogether. Owing to his persistent efforts and support Dr. Fatemi, head director of Province of Fars Office of Culture, the act of nomadic education was passed on January 1, 1956 registered on January 31, 1956 and finally notified to Shiraz Office of Culture by the Head of the office of Basic Education on March 21, 1957. |
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A number of educational monitors were selected among the teachers with at least 6 years of successful teaching. This selection was related neither to their experience nor to their licenses, certificates, and degrees. Only those who had the passion and could encourage others were given these positions.
The task of these monitors were not interrupted in any way; no matter it was a holiday or the weather condition was unbearable, they were on the road constantly evaluating children, familiarizing with teachers and reporting back to Shiraz and informing Bahmanbeigi of everything they had realized.
After the considerable success of these committed monitors, they were given a fully-equipped vehicle with a skilled driver and assigned to visit their patch 3 weeks of every month and reporting back to Shiraz and refreshing in the 4th week.
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