RUSSIAN TEACHERS BEGIN CAMPAIGN FOR CORRECT PAY FROM SEPTEMBER THE FIRST
By Stephen Wilson
"We are fed up of waiting for kindness from above. From the 1st September
the all-regional Teacher Union of Educational Workers "Teacher" has begun a
campaign for correct pay. We demand a fair system of payment where all
extra hours are paid....
There is one more problem - the pay of teachers . There is now a current
system where the economics of school money remains in the hands of the
management and the distribution of money is in the hands of the
administration. As a rule, the lion's share of the fund for paying teachers goes
to a small circle of people, close to the headmaster or mistress. And the teachers
are left with the crumbs in order that they don't run away from the school," stated
a frustrated Russian English teacher from Saint Petersburg, Marina Baluyeva.
In fact, some people have described the struggle as 'an anti corruption campaign'.
This is because not only the pay is low, but unevenly distributed in such
a way that an administrator attached to the school can pocket the equivalent of
3 or 4 salaries of teachers despite doing far less hours than the average teacher.
The whole pay system is largely dependent on the headmaster and headmistress
of a school who can decide how many hours a teacher is granted and how much
a teacher is paid. There are many cases where a teacher is not paid for some
hours on the grounds the school has no money, or is paid according to how
many points he scores or on how many students have done well on
tests or Olympiads.
To add insult to injury, the Russian media is full of propaganda informing the
public about how the lot of teachers has vastly improved . There is no end to
this propaganda which you can read in every local paper or journal in Moscow .
According to recent reports, the pay of teachers in Moscow has risen by 40% in
Moscow from 2017. The Mayor stated that 'the best teachers' have received
double the amount of grants. He stated that 38,000 teachers have received
a pay rise of 12,000 rubles. Of course, the Mayor has just made this questionable
claim before taking part in an election. It is more or less a crude move to win votes.
A teacher's pay can be divided into three parts: he obtains basic pay which is
a fixed number of rubles for each hour, compensation pay which amounts to
how much time he or she has spent organizing special school celebrations or
organizing a school journal or new test and the third and most controversial
part of the pay which amounts to at least 25% is stimulated pay. Concerning
the latter, it is paid according to how many points a student obtains for this
outcome at the Olympiads. The crucial point here is that the number of rubles
obtained for each point varies from school to school {The cost of one point
might be from anything from 200 - 500 rubles. So a teacher who won 3 points
because all his students won an Olympiad test could get a maximum of 1500
rubles if he is lucky. But by the way, those Olympiad tests are notoriously
difficult, thus leading to allegations that the whole payment system is largely
unfair. But there is no 100% guarantee this last part will be paid
in a consistent as well as continued basis. Sometimes the school really runs
out of money to pay parts of this salary. This stimulated pay has been known
to reach high proportions in some schools ranging from 30 - 40%!
The Union Teacher is fighting for the a much more uniform, accountable and
fairer pay system where teachers are paid for every hour they do and the
distribution of pay should be justified. Payment should not be based on a whim,
caprice or greed but according to a person's labor.
Andrei Radov, one of the organizers of the Union's campaign, stated the
Russian Education system has been in a state of permanent crisis for many
years, stating there exists: "Massive dissatisfaction with the current education
system." School students are tired of being constantly tested, handed out
endless homework and being deprived of free time which they could use in
sport. On top of this, all kinds of new subjects are being introduced at a time
when both students and teachers don't have enough time. The introduction of
chess and astronomy as new subjects for 1st to 4th year classes seems good until
questions arise: Who will be obliged to teach those subjects and will they even
get paid for this overtime?
"Leave teachers in peace," shouts Marina Baluyeva. "We are already tired of hearing
about the all possible proposals of deputies and officials because someone wants
to improve something by introducing a new subject to school . But they forget that
you can't endlessly add another discipline. In the timetable you end up replacing
one subject with another. What subject will be replaced? Physical Education? But
children are today already not in good form! Russian? They are already learning
not to speak it well ! ... They are constantly inventing new duties for us".
It goes without saying that the amount of paperwork a teacher is obliged to do has
shot up over the past twenty years. On top of this, a teacher's is being checked
by inspectors more and more even when this teacher has thirty years experience.
It looks as if teachers face a relentless struggle. Politicians and officials don't seem
to listen to their grievances. So teachers can only anticipate an endless struggle to
secure even the most basic human rights: some free time and decent pay.
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