In an open letter to Vladimir Putin teachers explain how to solve the problems in the education system.
In a letter recently posted on the Internet the teaching community complains about the problems that beset the Russian education system and points to gaps in legislation. The letter is addressed to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Like true professionals, the teachers did not just present their demands, but also suggested ways of addressing the task.
The teachers' main complaint is to do with the introduction of the new remuneration system. Beginning from this school year, teachers' salaries were paid on the basis of the actual number of pupils in their class and not on the basis of the work hours they put in. That reduces teacher's income by between 1,000 and 3,000 roubles while increasing the load by 4-6 academic hours. Furthermore, "the system of wage incentives is not transparent, leading to abuses and settling of accounts between staff members", the teachers argued.
In some places the school headmaster decides who is to receive bonuses "for being active". That gives a lot of room for arbitrary decisions, claims Marina Blinova, a physics teacher at school No. 5 in the Nizhniy Novgorod Region. "As a teacher I was not motivates by the bonuses," she says.
The education system has a host of other woes which, the authors of the letter complain, prevent them from concentrating on teaching.
Among the recipes proposed are the introduction of a uniform legal framework that establishes the rights and duties of all those involved in the education process; a revision of the Single State Examination system and cutting down on paperwork.
A similar open letter with 1453 signatures was passed to the Russian President earlier. The teachers were soon notified that the message had been passed on to Prime Minister Putin. Three months have passed since then, but there has been no reply. It was then that the teachers decided to publish the open letter online.
Judging from the teachers' comments, they agree with nearly all the measures proposed. Most are in favour of scrapping "the American testing system", that is, the Single State Examination. "Teachers want to preserve the traditions of the Russian school, which had many valuable features," says Ms Blinova.
The Ministry of Education and Science attributes the publication of the open letter to political reasons citing Communist agitation. Officially, the Ministry of Education and Science has not registered any cases of salary cuts. "We constantly monitor teachers' salaries in 31 regions which are implementing comprehensive education modernisation plans, one element of which is new remuneration principles. We have not registered a single such instance. The methodology of transition sets a firm condition that salaries cannot be reduced and loads cannot be increased," the Director of the Ministry's Government Policy Department, Igor Remorenko, told Moskovsky Komsomolets.
According to the Minister of Education and Science, Andrei Fursenko, schools are overstaffed: "The adoption of a new remuneration system has increased teachers' salaries and elderly teachers have begun postponing retirement. We have been receiving numerous letters from graduates of teacher training institutions who complain that there are no jobs for them in the schools because elderly teachers do not want to be replaced."
Marina Lemutkina; Ulyana Urban