Science minister calls TOEFL, GRE suspension ‘stone age’ behavior
Iran’s Science Minister Hossein Simaei Sarraf on Tuesday condemned the suspension of TOEFL and GRE testing in Iran as “Stone Age” behavior, while Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the move showed that Washington was targeting Iranian citizens across fields including education.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) indefinitely suspended General License G on August 24, which had authorized certain academic exchanges and the export and import of specified educational services involving Iran, IRNA reported.
Following the regulatory change, the US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS), which administers the TOEFL and GRE, halted both examinations in Iran pending further review. ETS said the decision was taken to comply with US sanctions laws and that affected candidates would be contacted directly.
The suspension directly affects Iranian students, researchers and other applicants who use standardized test scores as part of applications to universities abroad. TOEFL measures English proficiency in reading, listening, speaking and writing, while the GRE is a standardized graduate admissions examination used by many universities and programs internationally.
Simaei Sarraf said the National Organization of Educational Testing, which oversees international examinations in Iran, was reviewing the situation. “It is interesting that participation in an examination is essentially being prohibited based on Iranian nationality,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Tehran.
“These are no longer anything but ‘Stone Age’ behaviors,” the minister said, arguing that sanctions were intended to pressure Iran into submission. He also pointed to what he described as a longer record of restrictions affecting Iranian universities and academic publications.
Baghaei said Foreign Ministry departments were working to facilitate access to such examinations for Iranian students and applicants.
“If there were even the slightest sincerity in their claims about nuclear concerns,” Baghaei said, “what does a student examination, or an issue solely related to student exchanges, have to do with the nuclear issue?”
He described the latest restrictions as part of what Washington itself has called economic pressure on Iran, saying their effects extended to “science, knowledge, technology” and academic exchanges. Baghaei acknowledged that the measures created difficulties but said Iran would pursue alternative mechanisms to enable students and researchers to continue their academic activities.