Merit Pay

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.

Members First

Members First kick off first meeting of new school year
By Jim Vail

Members First Therese Boyle & Viktor Ochoa.

The new teachers group Members First - although not an official caucus - kicked off the new year with a meeting at Pompeii Restaurant in Pilsen last week, with about 25 members in attendance.

The new group was formed last year over frustration with the union's opaque budget and foundation financial dealings unbeknownst to members until the last June House of Delegates meeting revealed a deficit and mandated union employee layoffs (field reps filed a grievance this past summer and banded together to avert laying off two field reps). 

Members First Therese Boyle - who will run for CTU president against Jesse Sharkey in the next union election in spring 2019 - said the group plans to distribute flyers in the schools and verified with the Chicago Public Schools that this action will constitute free political speech after CPS had issued a warning about restrictions on political electioneering with the upcoming state elections this fall.

The Members First (MF) Facebook page currently has about 3,700 members (including CTU leadership caucus CORE members) which features lively debates on issues affecting teachers. Kathleen Cleary, a retired teacher who helps run the FB page, said many teachers send personal messages because they are afraid of principal retaliation. She added that some people do not have FB accounts. MF and CORE both have FB & Twitter accounts.

MF members said it is important that all materials such as Members First t-shirts are made only by companies with union workers. 

MF is currently collecting signatures to run Terri Hehn, a science teacher at Garvy Elementary School in Network 1, as a teacher trustee for the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund. There is only one trustee who is not a member of the leadership caucus CORE - Maria Rodriguez, who ran on the UPC ticket. It is very difficult for an independent candidate to became a trustee since it takes money and support that an establish caucus can provide. However, Rodriguez said she ran as an independent retired teacher trustee and won in the last election.

Boyle has been asking questions about CTU finances which revealed burning thru $5 million to result in the latest budget crisis. How much of the union's financial woes are due to a fall in membership (less teachers paying union dues due to falling student enrollment) or reckless overspending such as taking out a loan to buy $5 million in furniture for the new CTU headquarters has not been determined. The CTU - which is a private entity not covered under govern. regulations to provide open books - has been mostly mute on its spending priorities.

The caucus discussed the new officers for the CTU after Karen Lewis announced her retirement due to her illness. Jesse Sharkey is now serving as president, and Stacy Gates, who headed the political department, was slated to be the vice president (delegates need to vote her in). According to Viktor Ochoa, who will be Members First VP candidate, there was heated debate within the CORE caucus and in the executive board about who should serve as the VP. Gates - with the blessing of the leadership - has taken a huge role in financing candidates for office, many with close ties to the Chicago machine, such as House Speaker Mike Madigan - an at times vicious anti-union politician once seen wearing UNO Charter hats and going on trips to Turkey financed by a Turkish cult/charter operator called out for massive corruption. Some insiders believe the CTU can only operate in Springfield with Madigan's blessing in order to pass any legislation and fight Rep. Gov. Bruce Rauner's war on unions and paying a fair wage. 

Boyle noted that the union is playing fast and loose with election rules by setting up three political political action committees (pac) and she asked if it's possible for a foundation to give a loan to the CTU. 

Boyle's background in finance is causing a huge headache for the top brass at the union today. Parties not challenged in elections - last election no caucus ran against CORE - can be reckless and not open to transparency, like any govern or corporate entity in power.

"I want this crazy out of control spending to stop," Boyle told those gathered last Thursday. "The PAC is saying it's paying off the bank loan, but there is no form to document this."

Sharkey told the delegates earlier that the CTU members' $1 million dollar loan to the PAC (most of it going to the Chuy Garcia mayoral campaign which the delegates voted on) was being paid back in $100,000 installments.

CTU finances are murky considering that the CTU is paying rent to the CTU Foundation - which is controlled by the four CTU officers. Money is going back and forth to perhaps avoid oversight, and questions are now being asked over how the money is spent. For example, the CTU did not provide the annual audit reports until MF asked for it.

One CORE member said the leadership caucus will vote to choose between either Jackson Potter (CORE founder, CTU chief coordinator who will teach again this year) or Drew Heiserman, who sits on the PR CTU committee, to be the next trustee. The trustees have been feeling heat because they are supposed to oversee CTU spending.

The CTU sold the Fukes Tower for $48 million which was operated by the Foundation before purchasing and moving into the current CTU headquarters on Carroll Street. The Fukes Tower was used as subsidized housing in the 60's for retired teachers who did not earn much before the numerous strikes throughout the 1980's under Jackie Vaughn helped raise teacher salaries to a competitive level that they are at today.

The CTU leadership has built up a formidable caucus in which sources say those who work at the union - including lawyers, consultants, etc. - must pay into the caucus. Politics 101 - you pay to play!

Teacher Pay

UP IN THE AIR AND SURREAL

TEACHERS' PAY

By Stephen Wilson

Russian teachers like American are under increased pressure to perform.

             I was going on an errand as my eye caught a peculiar poster. It was no

             ordinary poster. It was not just another poster encouraging people to

             vote in choosing  Moscow's mayor in the impending election due on

             the 9th September. The poster showed brokers dawning bowler hats

             and business suits, all identical, floating in the air. It reminded you of

             a surreal painting by either Chagall or Dali. But this poster perhaps best

             sums up the unreal atmosphere in which this election is being conducted

             and how people are often floating through life in some kind of trance

             or living in castles in the air. At first I thought it was an advertisement for

             Hugo Boss suits or simply new suits. But then I noticed below an appeal

             to vote.

             But the unreality of this poster is matched by the hype used to promote

             the Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. In one brochure all kinds of unsubstantiated

             and inflated claims have been made . For instance, the average school

             teacher in Moscow monthly salary rose from 39,000 rubles in 2010, to

             70,000 rubles in 2013 to 90,000 in 2018. The leading local education

             official claims it is even bigger citing a staggering 110, 000 rubles. So

             which is the actual figure-  90,000 or 110,000?  Or do men in Hugo

             Boss suits float around in the air? In fact, none of those figures are

             correct as average salaries often conceal more than they reveal. The

             picture is a lot more complex than even we first thought. Second City

             Teacher made some inquiries and came across a music teacher who

             was working a full time job and receiving 35,000 rubles. One teacher,                

             who refuses to be named, and knows a lot of teachers who work full

             time, believes a more accurate monthly figure is somewhere between

             60,000 and 70,000 rubles. But even this figure doesn't do justice to

             vast pay differentials between teachers who claim they receive far

             less. And often those teachers who obtain this 60,000 rubles are

             not working the minimum 18 hour 'stavka' or full time schedule, but

             the equivalent of two stavkas. In other words, they are effectively

             doing two full-time jobs!  Oksana Chebotareva recently met a

             school teacher, Olga, who claimed to earn 90,000 rubles a month

             in Moscow . "She told me she had to work very long hours for this

             salary. But she has to do a lot of paperwork, preparation and reports."

             When we go beyond Moscow a more complex picture emerges. For

             example, in the Samarskoi   region of Russia officials claim that teachers

             earn 30,000 rubles a month. Yet a teacher of Social Knowledge, in a rural

             village states : "They claim that the average pay of a teacher is 30,000

             rubles but this untrue . A full time job amounts to 18 hours . There is a

             pay rise out of the school budget . But how can you achieve this ? You

             get this extra rise out of the success of students taking Olympiads and high

             quality scientific work undertaken by students under the supervision of

             teachers . But some of this high quality work goes unrewarded. I do 14

             hours and receive 15,000 rubles plus a rise leaves me with 19 to 20,000

             rubles. ... They will give you a rise for half a year and afterwards none.

             Attaining 30,000 rubles can only be done by doing two jobs. But this is

             physically hard and the quality of preparing for lessons suffers."

             Natalie , a teacher of Russian from Samara stated : " Young teachers

             are running away from schools . Why do such work when a higher

             ranking experienced teacher only receives 20,000 rubles even with

             extra lessons ? In order to earn your living, you need to do around two

             full time jobs - not 18 , but 28-30 hours ".

             According to some estimates, a rural 

             teacher can earn from 9,000 to 13,000 rubles a month.

             But if the salaries of school teachers are rising then this is not translated

             by increasing satisfaction. On the contrary, a recent survey undertaken

             by Rosstat found that while in 2014, 53.2 % of teachers expressed

             dissatisfaction with their salaries, in 2016 this rose to 65.3% .            

             The reasons for this are not hard to find. The rise in teachers' pay has

             come at a dreadful price. Because some parents believe that the

             teachers are well-paid, they expect them to vastly improve the performance

             of their children. Highly unrealistic expectations are placed on teachers.

             Classes can be taken from a young teacher on the whim of a complaining

             parent. It is as if a consumer model of education has arisen. Instead of

             the consumer is always right, the parent is always right. A teacher of

             Russian Natalyia stated: "Earlier, parents were the first assistants of

             class management. Now a new generation of parents has grown up

             who see the role of teacher as an educational servant, forgetting they

             are not in the private sector but in a state school. All kinds of invented

             complaints are sent to the administration and above".

             Russian teachers have never been under more pressure. They have

             to work more hours, do more paper work, face more complaints from

             parents who are assumed to be always right, and teach pupils who

             are also stressed out because they have virtually no free time. And

             the curriculum is constantly changing . One history textbook which

             history teachers were using can suddenly be removed to be replaced

             by a new one. This means all the existing history textbooks which

             have been used are simply thrown away even if they are reasonable.

             A student of history is expected to learn, in detail, not just the history

             of early Russia, but all the periods up to the 21st century and be able

             to answer complex questions in the Unitary State Exam on why this

             particular Russian white army lost a battle in the Russian Civil War.

             School students don't have that much time to cram all those facts

             into their brain. Many of them are under pressure to learn two foreign

             languages as well as daunting equations in mathematics which are

             at times, more appropriate for university students.

             If teachers do receive 'higher pay' rises it comes at a price of virtually

             being deprived of free time not to mention the negation of their

             authority in the classroom by all kinds of officials, parents and

             vested interests. Now if a teacher could soar away into the sky without

             falling he might just do it!

             I would like to acknowledge the assistance of the Journal Russian Reporter

             who did a brilliant investigation into the pay and conditions of Russian

             school teachers. { issue 17,{456} 27 August - 10 September 2018

             КАК ФОРМАТИРУЮТ ДЕТЕЙ  ИТОГИ ВСЕХ ШКОЛЬНЫХ РЕФОРМ

             ГЛАЗАМИ УЧИТЕЛЕЙ

Why Sustainable Schools?

Do we want just a few sustainable schools?
By Jim Vail


The Chicago Teachers Union has been promoting its Sustainable Community Schools Initiative in which neighborhood schools compete to get grant money won in the last teachers' contract that will disburse about $10 million to about 20 schools.

Certainly, we all can use the extra money in our schools to hire more teachers, buy more textbooks, fix leaky roofs and crumbling walls, add more after-school programs, etc, etc.

But what message is the CTU sending by promoting a competition in which of the hundreds of schools encouraged to apply, only a fraction will win the grant money. Don't we all need this money for our neighborhood schools? Every school deserves it!

This whole Sustainable Schools initiative sounded a lot like the Race to the Top in which the winning schools and its students go to the top, while many children in the surrounding failing schools fall down.

Public education was never about winners and losers as the corporate entities want us to believe today with the over emphasis on standardized testing to prove what everybody already knows - those with more resources test higher. A union represents all its teachers, while a public education educates all its students. 

The problem today is that the funding mechanism is skewed toward different gimmicks that promote a gap between the schools of haves and have nots. Take the Tax Increment Financing or TIFs scam in which tax money can be used by the mayor as a slush fund to finance his own pet projects at the expense of democratic control. A majority of the TIF monies - which rob from the schools overall - is given to magnet schools at the expense of the neighborhood schools.

The Sustainable Schools model is laudable - a model that recognizes 'transformative' services with 'family and community partner involvement at the core.' The idea is to promote lower class sizes, a broad and rich curriculum, extracurricular activities, wrap-around services, additional support for English learners, better access to early learning, parent engagement, etc.

But this initiative is not combating 'the chronic defunding' of public education. Many schools will not win this grant money - are they any less deserving? 

A more equitable way to fund public education is to fight for all the public schools we have to be fully funded and not dangle some grant money to a few lucky ones. 

The CTU states: "The current CTU contract with CPS includes a provision to pilot 20-55 Sustainable Community Schools by 2019. In reality, however, every school in the city needs to be an SCS. The ultimate goal is for all schools to have robust staff, programming and parent and community engagement."

Some sustainable schools sends the wrong message.

Patrick Gordon

PATRICK GORDON  A SCOTTISH SOLDIER OF MISFORTUNE 

By Stephen Wilson

Stephen Wilson next to grave of Patrick Gordon in Moscow.

            At last! It was endlessly perplexing. After a never ending odyssey it was found.

            We had been searching for the grave of General Patrick Gordon in the German

            graveyard in Moscow  for years. But no matter how much we looked in this

            graveyard, his grave proved elusive. Then, with a stroke of luck, Oksana  

            Chebotareva embarked on a free excursion of the graveyard where the

            historian Alexi Thomasmart led her to this largely secluded boulder. The

            inscription on the gravestone was in German. The guide, Thomasmart told

            Second City Teacher that: "Many Russians make the error of believing that this

            is the grave of Francis Lefort as they notice his name is also on it but the

            inscription only points out he was the companion of Lefort." The guide also

            pointed out that the name 'German graveyard' is a misnomer as the cemetery

            caters for all foreigners. I and Jim Vail recently encountered the gravestone

            of an early 19th century teacher,who had been married to a Russian and died

            in Moscow. Somethings never change over the centuries.

            If we finally found the grave of Peter the Great's boon companion, Patrick

            Gordon,we almost certainly won't find the grave of Lefort. That is because

            he does not have one. Nobody knows where his grave is. It has vanished

            into obscurity. All that remains in the graveyard is his ghost who is reputed

            to haunt the cemetery in the early hours of the morning with faint music

            coming from his flute.

            We would not have found this gravestone without the provision of a free

            excursion. All summer, the local authorities have been providing at least

            500 free excursions, in Russian, as well as a few in English. What is more,

            many of those excursions are led by very enthusiastic and excellent

            guides. They consider this work not as 'just another job' but rather a passion.

            For instance, one guide, Maxim, gave us an intriguing excursion around most

            of the buildings which the writer Mikhail Bulgakov stayed in.

            

            But who exactly was Patrick Gordon? The mention of his name among

            most local Russians and Scots draws a blank stare. I never even heard his

            name surface when having a lesson on Peter the Great at school. General

            Patrick Gordon was, next to Francis Lefort, one of Peter the Great's right

            hand men. He was a mercenary born in 1635, near Aberdeen in Auchleuchries.

            As a Catholic, due to discrimination, he found he had no future prospects at

            home in terms of entering university or taking up a military career. Seeing no

            future in Scotland, he went abroad to seek his fortune . After 2 years in a

            Jesuit college in Brandenburg, he dropped out to pursue a military career as

            a soldier of fortune. Gordon changed sides more than four times. He fought

            for the Swedes, then the Poles, then again, the Swedes, and Poles again.

            Each time he was captured , he changed sides. In 1660, the restoration

            happened so Gordon decided to return home to Scotland. But just before

            he left, he bumped into a Russian officer who made him a tantalizing offer.

            Gordon was offered the rank of major if he signed a contract for 3 years.  

            Gordon agreed. He signed! But he had made the biggest mistake in his life.

            After entering  and serving Russia he discovered the contract was

            meaningless. They would not allow him to return home. When he kept asking

            permission he was threatened with imprisonment or exile in Siberia as 'a Polish

            spy'. His experience lends substance to a common joke in Scotland. 'It is easy

            to get into Russia but very difficult to get out'.  

Gordon served under at least 4 Tsars who included Tsar Alexis, Fedor , the Regent Sophia and of course Peter the Great . The last Tsar he liked the most because Peter the Great

            greatly respected his knowledge and was an enthusiastic pupil of him.

            Gordon, who was brave, had traveled much and was endowed with a lot

            of practical wisdom, appealed to Peter. Both admired each other. When Gordon

            died in 1699, Peter the Great was at his deathbed and closed his eyes. Peter the

            Great greatly mourned him. He declared: "The state has lost in him an ardent                        and courageous servant who has steered us safely through many calamities. "

            

            Without Gordon's timely assistance , Peter the Great might have been overthrown.

            According to Kochan and Abraham's work 'The making of Russian History ':

            'Gordon's friendship was of critical importance to Peter in 1682, when he rallied

            the foreign mercenaries to Peter, thereby sealing the doom of the Regent Sophia.'

            How did Gordon managed to live in Russia for so long when he yearned so much

            to return to Scotland? Gordon did not feel at home in Russia. In the diaries ,he

            presents an unflattering picture of his hosts whom he considered vain, boastful

            and deeply prejudiced against foreigners. In one excerpt he writes: 'Strangers,

            were looked upon as a company of hirelings and best {'as they say of woman'}

            but necessaria mala {a necessary evil} : no honors or degrees of preferment to

            be expected here but military, and that with a limited command , no marrying with

            natives, strangers being looked upon by the best sort as scarcely Christian, and

            by plebeians as mere pagans and the worst of all the pay small.' The Patriach

            protested when Peter the Great invited Gordon to a christening of his son. Many

            Russians resented the fact the foreign officers received higher pay than them

            as well as better terms of service. Some wanted to drive all foreigners out of

            Russia. Gordon must have felt this prejudice and taken it hard. A brilliant

            Russian historian who has recently translated Gordon's diaries into Russian,

            Dmitri Fedosov confessed to us at a lecture: " I just don't know how Gordon

            managed to endure staying for such a long time in Russia with such an attitude

            towards Russia". It seems that he remained because he was a prisoner. Gordon

            was given permission to visit Scotland twice on the condition he return. Should

            he have violated this agreement his wife and children would have been punished.

            The diaries reveal an almost stereotypical Scot. Gordon meticulously, in painfully

            minute detail describes everything he bought and at what price. He was very

            frugal, disciplined and drank well. He had a strong sense of honor and fought

            duels against anyone who dared to deeply offend him. Unless one has the

            diligence of a conscientious historian, you can skip the tedious passages on

            how he purchased every item and at what price for more important details

            concerning how he fought the Turks and acted during the revolt of the Regent

            Sophia.             

   

            Although Patrick Gordon was a great soldier, he hardly proved the best sailor .

            Being made a Vice Admiral , he once nearly sank the yacht he was sailing in

            by confounding the crosses in a cemetery on the coast with the masts of

            ships he was supposed to be following. From this perspective , he might forgive

            Russians for believing  his gravestone  belonged to Francis Lefort!

Russian Pension Reform

RUSSIAN REFORM OF PENSIONS

By Stephen Wilson

 

MOSCOW -  During the 18th century, the legendary Frederick the Great was obsessed with

building the best army in Europe. He strove to turn Prussia into the greatest

military power in Europe. Investing so much money into the military he became

notoriously mean. He was so stingy he never bought a new overcoat. And most

of his older soldiers did not receive a pension. So they were reduced to begging

in the streets. They came back to haunt him. Whenever he entered a new

town they converged on him asking for money. If he was in a good mood, he

would toss them a coin as if throwing a bone to a dog. But if he was in a foul

mood he roared to his guards: "Drive the scum away!"

Russia is not Prussia. However, the public declaration and the way that

Russian pension reform is being implemented in Russia indicates not only

contempt for ordinary Russians, but a failure to distinguish Russia from Europe.

For instance, Russians die faster than the majority of people in Western Europe,

their pensions are far lower and it is not uncommon to confront pensioners

begging all round Moscow. If they are not selling things they can be seen lining

the streets selling flowers grown from their dachas or fruit. Svetlana Wilson

stated: "I saw this frail woman selling this tattered undergarment which I

realized nobody would buy. So I just decided to purchase it."

Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev declared that the retirement age would

be increased from 60 to 65 for men by 2020, and 55 to 63 for woman by 2034.

The government justifies their proposals on the old grounds that the ratio of

working people to retired has drastically decreased. Whereas in the 1950's

there were five able bodied men to one pensioner, now there are just a bit more

than two able bodied men. The government has less money to sustain the current

system. They also argue that since life expectancy has increased to 71.3,

there are now far more older people to take care of. The Prime Minister has

attempted to reassure anxious aging people that special labor exchanges will

be established to either retrain or offer them work. But how the mortality rate

suddenly jumped from 59 in 2010 to 71.3 in 2018 remains a mystery!

Those proposals are not new. In 2010, the then finance minister Alexei Kudrin attempted

to implement later retirement plans to 'balance the books'. But the proposals

were withdrawn following outrage and mass protests. And again, the Russian

government is facing mass demonstrations all over Russia that threaten

social disorder. Most Russians are indignant . This is indicated by a petition

against reforms which got 2.6 million signatures. An artist Svetlana Wilson

who receives a pension of 14,000 rubles stated: "The government do not

understand that Russia is not Western Europe. The quality of life here is very

bad. We have low wages, poor medical care and most men die around

the age of 65. I can't imagine anyone who is in favor of those reforms. We

don't have manufacturing industry . The factory where my mother built planes

for many years has closed down." 

The Institute of Economics claims that as many as 18% of men would die before they got their pension. This seems a gross underestimate . Yelena Boyko, an accountant stated: "I think this is an attack on people. I'm angry. The Russian government has been wasting

money on the Olympic games, the World Cup, renovating parks in Moscow,

and financing a war in Syria. They should be improving the pay of teachers,

doctors and retired people. Yet Putin travels around in an expensive jet plane

while the Prime Minister of Croatia just came on an ordinary plane without

V.I.P. status. Who do you think pays for all the luxury travel and feasts he

enjoys? Ordinary Russians pay for this out of their own income via tax."

What infuriates some Russians even more is the fact many politicians and

professions enjoy a relatively early retirement age. The retirement age for

the Federal Service Bureau is 35, and politicians 45. A member of the Russian

parliament can obtain a handsome sum of 63,500 rubles a month. This sum is

three to five times the average pension who usually acquires 14,500 rubles a

month. A manager called Dmitri told me: " Not everyone gets the same pension.

It varies a lot. My grandmother who receives 14,000 rubles, at 74, has to teach

two students a day at her apartment. Yelena Boyko stated: "My mother worked

for 40 years but only gets 14,000 rubles a month. It is insulting."

However, some teachers have even claimed the reforms might actually lead

to greater protection for the jobs of some teachers. This is because some

teachers at institutes have been forced to retire even when they don't want to.

Oksana Chebotareva stated: "Some teachers would welcome having their

work extended as retirement age represents a pretext for dismissing them. Some

teachers don't look forward to getting a pension which is a lower than their

existing wages." Some younger people stated that reaching retirement age

can represent a death sentence. They can lose their main sense of purpose in

life by retirement as work offers them a structured routine and the company of

colleagues.

It is important to note that the new pension reforms will not only be a blow against

the old but their children and grandchildren. Grandparents play a vital role in

looking after their grandchildren allowing parents to go out and work. This is

very important for divorced or single woman who would be unable to cope with

juggling their work schedule with domestic obligations. However, it seems unlikely

that there will be jobs available for people in the provinces. If companies are

highly reluctant to employ people at forty or fifty, it is doubtful they will employ

people at 60. In some rural villages there is no work for young people, never

mind old! The rate of unemployment in Russia has long been underestimated.

But it is instructive to visit a local graveyard in some towns. There you will find

the graves of people who died in their thirties and forties from alcohol, drugs, and

stress of all kinds. They died from what we call the despair diseases.

The Russian language does not appear to have a word for retirement as we

understand this in Europe. They tend to say, "Go on the pension." With the

new reforms they won't be going on the pension but the pension will be

running away from them. It will be like a phantom pension. You can see it but

you can never catch or touch it. It is not tangible.

What is especially traumatic about those new reforms is that while in Soviet

times Russians received free education, medical care and pensions, now they

are losing a third sacred cow. That is, they have no right to free education, free

medical care and even a modest pension. But you can at least turn into a ghost

or shade which haunts graveyards.

Online Education

NEW RUSSIAN REFORMS PROPOSE DIGITAL SCHOOLS

By Stephen Wilson

 

 

MOSCOW -- While in the kitchen I hear a long-suffering teacher in the next room groan in

exasperation "It has become disconnected again". Her computer has

yet again broken down. She has a break until the computer goes on again

and the on-line lesson resumes only to be delayed again by a further

disconnection! Finally, she resolves to continue the lesson by mobile phone.

I have lost count of the times she has cursed her computer . But what is the

solution? Try to persuade the computer to behave itself? Buy a new one?

A new computer is often beyond the disposable income of your average

Russian teacher. Get it fixed? Well, often the cost of repairing it surpasses

the actual price of some laptops!

What some teachers find bewildering is how many people presume everyone

without exception owns a computer and that the introduction of computers

represents a progressive step. Yet many people just can't afford a computer

nor do they welcome an aching spine or stressful headache. The proposal

for that is to take eye ointment and even painkillers for a sore spine. And

pharmacies are everywhere in Moscow. There are about four or five in just

one small street where I live. I wonder why?

The latest proposal by the Russian government to introduce Digital schools

has aroused anxiety among many Russian teachers.

The government is seeking to establish 4,200 digital schools as well as

a special program to train teachers in on-line technology. The government

proposes to replace printed paper books by electronic books in a minimum

of 11 subjects as well as invest 507.3 billion rubles in the creation of Digital

schools by December 2020. School students tests and even homework will

be marked by digital means or automatically. The move would mean not so

seriously ill school students at home could do their homework. The state

argues that such technology will not only modernize schools but allow teachers

to deploy more interesting methodologies. When Olga Avgustan, a specialist

in information technology came to a school to give a talk on the merits of

technology she found teachers were unenthusiastic. "They told me that

such computers were just too expensive for schools. They thought they

would be inconvenient. I argued that the use of such technology might

make their lessons more interesting for the students. In general, I

found many school teachers conservative". 

However, the argument that such technology is too expensive seems to be perceptive and vindicated by some examples. Leonid Perlov, a geography teacher, stated such an

enormous amount of money was invested in such technology at his school

they could not even buy him a globe! An English First school went bust

because it invested too much of their budget in the latest electronic boards,

computers and video equipment. Maybe they should have just continued

using inexpensive white boards!

However, it is not the cost which is the main worry about this technology. It

is the adverse health impact which is rarely addressed by those proponents.

Vsevolod Lukhovileskii, the chairman of the Union Teacher stated:

"This idea is very dangerous. It can lead to several unpleasant consequences.

Firstly, research indicates that a child must not be left in front of a computer

for too long as their eye sight gets worse. ... It will also lead to massive teacher redundancies. This is economizing on people."

Parents of school children also express similar concerns. An English student named Vitali 

who has two children informed me, "I would be worried about the eyesight of my own children as they are already spending too much time in front of a computer." 

It is strange that while parents and teachers are attempting to protect children from overusing new gadgets, officials seek to promote them. This may well be an attempt by companies and officials to make a fast profit from selling gadgets as well as cutting the cost of education. It can be viewed as a crude commercial measure rather than a genuinely effective educational idea. As usual, the teachers and the Union Teacher have not

been consulted about this so-called 'modernization' or rather commercialization

of schools which we have witnessed in America with ill consequences concerning

not only education but in ruining physical and mental health.

Well, you can always kick your computer to see if it works again if it breaks down

during an on-line lesson. It might not do the trick, but you will feel a bit better.

Just don't take painkillers for your backache!