The 78th session of the Zoroastrian Religious Taskforce was held in person at the Fravahar Organization’s conference hall, organized by the taskforce secretariat.
The meeting opened with participants from various cities and educational institutions introducing themselves. Alongside their introductions, they presented statistical updates on their religious activities from the past year, for information of the group. Mobed Dr. Mehraban Pouladi, head of the Council of Mobeds and the session’s facilitator, invited attendees to focus on the issues and challenges they’ve encountered.
As a result, much of the discussion revolved around the difficulties related to final exams for 11th and 12th-grade students—particularly regarding grading and the assessment process. Mobed Pouladi also stressed the significance of teaching the Avestan script and reviewed methods to increase student interest in learning it.
In a proactive step to address concerns with standardized testing, Mobed Pouladi proposed developing unified exam materials. A number of experienced educators volunteered to create comprehensive, standardized question and answer sheets for grades 9, 11, and 12. These would be based on the official curriculum and submitted to the Council of Mobeds for review. Once approved, the materials—especially those related to religious studies shared across faiths—would be distributed among other recognized religious groups to promote consistency and coordination.
The session continued with discussions focused on encouraging greater interest in religious values among students. Participants also reached an agreement on organizing a national gathering of religious teachers, set to coincide with the Pir-e Naraki pilgrimage and to be held at the Markar Campus in Yazd. The exact date and time of the event will be finalized following approval from the Council of Mobeds, after which further details will be announced.
It was confirmed that the next meeting of the Religious Taskforce will take place on Shahrivar 7, 1404.
Regarding educational resources, it was announced that religious textbooks for all grade levels are currently being printed and will be distributed to students ahead of the new academic year.
The session concluded with a tribute to the late Bijan Noushiravani, a respected and influential member of the taskforce whose contributions were warmly remembered.
This meeting was held on Friday, Amordad 3, 1404.
