MNA � President Hassan Rouhani in a symbolic gesture rang the bell at a girls� high school in downtown Tehran on Sunday to mark the first day of school year in Iran.







�Iranian students start the school year on September 22, which marks the first day of autumn on the Iranian calendar,�after a three-month summer vacation.

The back-to-school ceremony is officially inaugrated by the president each year, as he rings the bells in a symbolic gesture at a chosen school. This�year, more than 100,000 schools and educational centers opened across Iran on Sunday, offering curriculum in a variety of subjects to some 14 million students.

Concurrent with the back-to-school ceremony, 59 educational projects came on stream in the earthquake-hit parts of Kermanshah, broadcast via video conference and streaming the president�s message.

President Rouhani voiced his appreciation to those who had assisted in the reconstruction process of the quake-hit parts in Kermanshah, and prayed for the departed souls of those who lost their lives in a terrorist attack in Ahvaz on Saturday.

Rouhani then issued an order for the opening of reconstructed schools in Kermanshah.

During his speech, Rouhani will also raise a question for the student competition dubbed�Question of Mehr. Last year, the question was focused on the roots of violence and ways to free the societies in the region and the world from violence.