From "Shahreza Mashhad High School" to "Mamazan School of Education" A look at the life and services of Dr. Mohammad-Amir Birjandi

The purpose of this article is to address the life and services of "Mohammad Amir Khan Birjandi" as one of the pioneers of Iran education system in the field of modern school management. The research method is biographical, which is kind of historiography. In this way, aspects of a character's life are realistically depicted based on important events and happenings. To be more precise, the present study is a long and detailed type of biography of that describes and to some extent explains the services and activities of Amir Birjandi in the field of education in order to appreciate his efforts. Resources and documents such as official archives, newspapers, interviews, commemorations and photographs are used to collect research data. The sampling method is snowball that the informed people were introduced by other interviewees. "Amir Birjandi", the eldest son of "Amir Ma"asoom Khan Sheibani", was born in 1901 in Birjand. The Sheibani family - known as the Vekalat dynasty - was one of the local rulers of "Great Khorasan", whose political power gradually diminished as Reza Shah's government came to power, and they were eventually removed from the region's political scene. His father was a far-sighted, courageous and revolutionary man who foresaw the emergence of sweeping change in the world and, accordingly, decided to prepare his son for the coming changes. Since he had heard about the "American School" he decided to send Amir to that school. When he was just five years old, Amir went to Tehran with his father and finished his primary and secondary education at that school, which was later renamed to "Alborz School". He did not visit his father and other family members after enrolling in school for 16 years. Then he completed his bachelor's degree in educational sciences in "Alborz College" and in 1924 he taught in "Alborz School" for two years. From 1929 to 1934, Birjandi was the deputy director of "Shahreza High School" in Mashhad, after which he returned to Tehran and started his activities in "Ministry of Culture" where he established a physical education organization and developed a "physical education program for the country's schools.". He also served as the "Deputy Director of Scouting and Physical Education" in that ministry. In 1940, Birjandi married Parvin Farzad (Birjandi), a graduate of the American School, The result of this marriage was two daughters named Maryam (1940) and Mehrak (1943). After marriage, he and his wife spent several years training and improving the health of villagers of southern Khorasan. After that he returned to Tehran to manage student affairs at the "Ministry of Agriculture". He also took the responsibility of representative of Iran in the "Near East Foundation" and the "US-Iran Joint Commission on Rural Development". At the same time, he implemented a project named "Combating Illiteracy" project" in the villages and established a "Rural Teacher Training Center" in the village of "Mamazen" near "Tehran". In the late 1950s, he went to the "University of Wisconsin" to study in the field of "Rural Development and Agricultural Economics" and got the master and Phd degres from that university. Coming back home in 1954, Dr Birjandi took the responsibility of representative in the "Joint Commission of Iran and the United States for Rural Development" affiliated with the "Point Four Program". In 1955, he was appointed as the Managing Director of "Bongah-e-Omrani" and during the six years of his tenure, he performed many services in order to improve the development of villages and educate villagers. In 1957, he was elected as one of the founding members of the "Hezb-e-Mardoum" which was one of the political party in Iran. When "Parviz Natel Khanlari" was the minister of education system, He took the responsibility of deputy of Minister and carried out innovative activities such as "organizing the physical education program and student sport teams", "promoting extracurricular activities", "forming debate groups" and "linking between teachers and parents". He also successfully implemented other programs such as "Combating Illiteracy", "Literacy Corps"-Sepah-e danesh-, and "Distance Training". When "Hadi Hedayati" was minister, He also was elected as the chairman of the education committee of "National Association of Parents and Educators". Having the responsibility of "Deputy of Educational ministery" for 8 years, and serving of about 5 decades in the field of development and education, Dr. Birjandi retired from the Ministry of Education in 1970. He resumed his activities in the field of education by accepting the responsibility of "Dane shsaraye Ali Sepah e Danesh" from 1972 untill 1979. With his efforts, "Dane shsaraye Ali Sepah e Danesh" was promoted to the "Daneshgah-e-Sepahiyan-e-Enghelab". Undoubtedly, Birjandi's managerial style and personality traits in the administration of the Higher University of the "Daneshgah-e-Sepahiyan-e-Enghelab" along with his role in educating and sending students abroad, has made him an unforgettable character in the minds of that univesity's graduates, who are now great thinkers in the field of education. Dr Birjandi's special character and vast activities can be considered as a pattern for all level of educational managers. Finally, the flame of his life was extinguished in May 1981 due to an accident near Hafez Bridge in Tehran and he was buried in Tehran's Behesht Zahra. Considering his personality traits, Dr "Birjandi" was very calm, cultured, polite and honest person. In 1934, He was also an excellent sport-man and had special interest in mountain climbing, footbal and swimming. During his five decades of service, he always prefered executive roles to researching. Therefore, just limited papers and texts have been issued as follows: • Publication of "Shahreza High School Yearbook" in 1934 as the first educational publication in Khorasan. • Publication of the report named "The Education Corps Project in Iran: A Work Plan for Rural Development" in 1964. • Interview with "Quarterly Journal of Education" in September 1978. • "Leading High Schools of Khorasan, "Shaukat Shargh" in 2019.