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TEHRAN — Iran's government is planning to appoint a cleric in every school, a reformist newspaper reported Sunday on a move that could radicalise education in the Islamic republic.

"We are now defining the details of a plan called 'permanent appointment of clerics in schools'," the daily Hayateno quoted education ministry official Ali Asghar Yazdani as saying.

"As per this plan, clerics will take care of issues such as collective praying and answering religious questions and ambiguities in schools," Yazdani said.

Currently teachers themselves address such matters, although soon after the country's 1979 Islamic revolution, special teachers used to impart religious values in schools.

The reported change appears to be part of Iran's plan to Islamise studies after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently charged that Western teachings make students question religion.