Tehran, October 11, The Iran Project - Iran�s Minister of Cooperative, Labor and Welfare has announced that the number of school dropout children has decreased compared to the last year.

On the sidelines of the 1st national conference on �The Child�s Comprehensive Growth�and Development, a Leap towards Social Justice� which was held on Sunday morning, Iran�s Minister of Cooperative, Labor and Welfare Ali Rabiee said the number of school dropout children has decreased compared to the last year, explaining that last year, there were 175 thousand school dropout children, but this year the number of these children has fallen by 100 thousand people.

The ministry is also planning to return the other 75 thousand dropout children to school, Rabiee added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Rabiee said given the importance of children�s growth and development, the ministry decided to change the name of child labor organizing council to the council of social protection of children.

He also said as some of the children in deprived rural areas and border villages are suffering malnutrition, one of the ministry�s plans is to solve this problem by providing every schoolchild with a hot meal a day.