NEW ANTI-CORRUPTION
LAW
By Stephen Wilson
If you have a sweet
tooth and appreciate a box of chocolates from your students
forget it.
Accepting sweets from pupils will soon be illegal. Well it
is not all bad news!
At least you can water the flowers students might send you.
A new law is set to
come into effect which bans both teachers and doctors
from accepting gifts
from their students and patients. Teachers will only be
allowed to accept
flowers or stationary items. The newly proposed law which
is the initiative of
the Ministry of Labor, is being proposed as an attempt to
stamp out what
officials view as widespread corruption in both education
and medical care. For
example, although medical care is in theory
free in Russia, this
author was asked to provide a gift so that a homeless
person be granted
treatment and has heard of many cases of students trying
to persuade teachers
to 'pass' them in subjects despite being wholly absent
from their courses.
Teachers who refuse to accept bribes can be chided by
their superiors for
being 'obstinate'.
Current legislation
under article 575, makes it illegal to accept a gift which
exceeds the value of
3,000 rubles. However, when the new law comes into
effect, even modest
gifts such as a jar of jam or bar of chocolate will
be perceived as a
grave violation of the law. The peculiar logic behind the
law was given in a
recent statement by Vladimir Zhirinovskii who declared:
"Since childhood
we have learnt that mothers bring gifts to kindergartens,
polyclinics, hospitals
and schools. So from childhood we have learn to give
bribes. We should not
give anything . Don't give tips to taxi-drivers and
waiters".
But critics claim the
law fails to make a subtle distinction between granting
gifts and bribes. And
the fact that generous gift giving is an integral part of
Russian culture as
well as hospitality renders the matter grey. There is
much room for an abuse
or miscarriage of this new law. "This reminds me
of a witch hunt. You
need to make a distinction between a bribe and
gratitude.If someone
proposes giving you a gift before an operation,
that is 'stimulated
quality' : it is a bribe. But if a person gives you a
a present for saving
your life, and can no longer influence his health,
that is
gratitude." stated Andrei Khomorov , Chairman of the Society
for Defending
Patients.
"My Children
bring me sweets.We eat them together with tea. Sweets
and flowers for
teachers is a custom and attribute of politeness, and
not a bribe. I myself
am against expensive presents, but not to the point of
absurdity",
stated Yekaterina Philippova , a Russian French teacher.
The problem with this
law is that it would still make it legal for a teacher
to accept a Parker pen
which exceeds the price of 3000 rubles or more!
But what many teachers
resent is the insinuation that many teachers and
doctors are corrupt
and that they themselves are to blame for preventing
free public services
where the blame lies elsewhere. It is seen by many
as an attempt to
tarnish the already damaged reputation of school teachers.
It is the latest round
of public teacher bashing which never seems to end!
Not only are teachers
made to look incompetent by being forced to take
badly designed tests, but now they are viewed as easily corrupted.
One might have thought
the Ministry of Education had better priorities.
The Russian parliament
has made no real efforts to cut the mountains of
paperwork that school
teachers must do, or pay them decent wages in the
regions. Instead,
every new measure or law seems designed to wear out the
nerves of already
exhausted teachers. For example, in 2019, Rosobranayza
intends to test 40,000
teachers from 70 regions. If any teacher wants to
upgrade his
qualifications he has to sit and pass a course, organised by the
Unitary Federal
Evaluation of Material organisation. The courses are not
even free and may
range in price from anything from 5600 rubles to 60
or 70 thousand rubles.
The fact that a teacher might have had books and
articles published or
has done a lot of research is deemed irrelevant. The
fact that the Ministry
of Education issues all kinds of directives and instructions
of how teachers must
teach represents a gross violation of Article 47 of the
Law on Education which
defends academic freedom. That is teachers have
the right to choose
and design their own methodology as long as they
follow the basic aims
of the curriculum.
Why are blackboards
being abruptly replaced by expensive electronic
boards which damage
the eyesight of many school pupils ? Many
people believe that
'the Digital revolution' where so many new schools are
established is simply
a way by computer companies to make a quick
and lucrative profit.
The main aim may be to
foster an atmosphere of fear among teachers
where teachers are
terrified of losing their jobs should they be subject
to all kinds of
accusations. And teachers who live in fear are much more
easily contained and
controlled.
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