What the exam is
Azmun-e Estekhdami-ye Amuzesh va Parvaresh is Iran’s national competitive examination for permanent recruitment of teachers into the Ministry of Education, Vezarat-e Amuzesh va Parvaresh. It is the single largest cadre specific hiring test the state runs: recent rounds have drawn over 400,000 registrants, a scale that reflects both the size of the ministry and the demand from qualified graduates for permanent government teaching posts. The examination sits candidates for primary teaching (amuzegari) and for subject teaching at secondary and higher secondary level across mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, Persian literature, Arabic, English, physical education, arts and religious studies, with the exact subject slate published in each round’s daftarcheh.
The teacher recruitment exam sits alongside Iran’s unified civil service examination, Azmun-e Faragir, but is a separate track. Faragir consolidates hiring across the executive agencies of the state and does not carry teaching posts. Teacher recruitment is held on its own schedule, uses its own eligibility rules and feeds directly into the Ministry of Education’s cadre.
Who conducts it
The National Organisation for Educational Testing, Sazman-e Sanjesh-e Amuzesh-e Keshvar, universally called Sanjesh, is the technical conducting body. Sanjesh publishes the notification, runs the online registration portal at sanjesh.org, prints admit cards, holds the written examination across provincial centres, marks the answer sheets and publishes the ranked results.
The Ministry of Education, whose website is medu.ir, is the recruiting body. It sets the vacancy count for each teaching subject, holds the cadre level selection after the written test, and issues the final placement. When sanjesh.org is unreachable from outside Iran, IRNA, ISNA, Mehr News and Tehran Times mirror the ministry’s practical announcements.
The general and specialised paper structure
The written test is a Sanjesh style OMR paper sat on one day. It is in three blocks.
The general knowledge block, ma’lumat-e omumi, is common across every teaching post and covers Persian language and literature, Arabic, general English, computer literacy, general and Islamic knowledge, and Iran’s constitutional and administrative law. This block is the same shape as the general block in Azmun-e Faragir.
The specialised education block is where the teacher exam diverges. Every candidate, regardless of subject, is tested on educational psychology, principles and philosophy of education, teaching methods, and educational measurement and evaluation, because these are the core competencies the Ministry of Education requires of a serving teacher.
The subject knowledge block is mapped to the specific teaching post applied for. A candidate applying for a mathematics teaching post is tested on mathematics; a candidate applying for a primary teaching post is tested on the primary curriculum stream; a candidate applying for an English teaching post is tested on English language and pedagogy; and so on across the subject list. Marking follows the same negative marking rule as Iran’s other Sanjesh administered examinations, with a fraction of the mark of each question deducted for a wrong answer.
What happens after the written test
The written test ranks candidates; it does not, on its own, appoint them. Once Sanjesh publishes the results the Ministry of Education holds its cadre level selection, which combines a specialised interview, a medical and physical fitness examination, and gozinesh, the ideological and character vetting that Iranian public employment law makes mandatory for permanent civil service posts. Successful candidates are typically routed through Farhangian University or Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University for their placement pathway, along the terms set out in the round’s notification. Final appointment as a permanent teacher is issued by the Ministry of Education once every stage clears.