Komsomolskaya Pravda: "Putin to increase music teacher salaries"
"We visited the opening ceremony of the Tchaikovsky competition together. I understand, the competition was a success and the closing ceremony was spectacular and beautiful. How do you assess the results?" This was Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's first question to Minister of Culture, Alexander Avdeyev, at the meeting held on Friday.
The minister reassured the prime minister that the performance had been up to the highest level, with the greatest success achieved by the internet broadcast of the competition which was viewed by more than 3 million people in 127 countries. Later, the minister turned the discussion to cultural education. In general-education profession-oriented schools, "everything is well-balanced," young people graduate from schools with two certificates – each for secondary and professional education. Postgraduate training has been restored at art universities, and moreover, documents are being prepared for the creation of Master's degree programmes. So, those with culture-related careers can obtain a second degree free of charge.
"The crisis hit all three levels of cultural education: art schools for children, secondary music and ballet schools and art universities. There are 47 universities, and a large quantity of students. Many State Duma deputies and, during the last stages, our colleagues from the Ministry of Education and Science had cooperated with us, and we have passed three laws and have legally settled most of the issues. Musical schools for children (there are 5370 schools all over the country) have their own profile: they work under a formula of pre-professional education. We have introduced a common form of graduation certificates for these schools. Though, we still have to work out a social security system for teachers," reported Avdeyev.
"How do the salaries of these teachers compare with other teacher salaries?" Putin turned to the sensitive issue.
"The salaries in these schools are calculated according to the work load. General education schools have a standard work load of 18 hours a week, but the work load in children's art schools is higher, while the work is just as tiring and difficult. In most schools, teachers have the benefit of preferential pension. They can remain working and receive a pension at the same time. Musical schools do not offer this privilege. In addition, the salaries are low – 4,000 to 6,500 roubles a month," sighed the minister.
"This is absolutely unacceptable. These teachers should have all the benefits of at least the level of general education schools," replied the prime minister.
"We have prepared the necessary documents. The Ministry of Education has negotiated with the labor unions regarding work loads and benefits. We need the labor union visa, and hopefully, the Ministry of Finance will allot these resources," the minister said with hope.
And finally, he informed the prime minister about the delayed renovation of the Bolshoi Theater. The emergency work is finished there, and actors temporarily perform at the Gorky House of Culture.
"We have allotted 700 million roubles, and these resources will be utilized. The project documentation is complete, and now it is being assessed by the experts," Avdeyev said. "We will start the large-scale operations once the experts finish their work. Hopefully, the expert evaluation will be ready within two weeks."
"So, the work will begin at the end of the summer? That's good," the prime minister nodded in reply.
Yelena Chinkova
