There is a shortage of teachers in the country: what to do and who is to blame

As it turned out, the problem of teachers is more of an all-Russian problem than a regional one.

Irina Mishina

Dmitry Kazakov is a unique person. He teaches history, social studies and life safety at the school in Nizhny Novgorod at the same time. Only in this way, combining several positions, the teacher, in his opinion, can earn a living.

“Often, our teachers' salaries are close to the minimum wage (12,792 rubles - editor's note), but for some it is even lower. A young teacher who comes to school, as a rule, earns 15-16 thousand, no more. If I don’t have additional workloads, my earnings will also not exceed 15-16 thousand rubles”, - Dmitry Kazakov, a teacher from the Nizhny Novgorod region, a member of the Council of the Interregional Labour Union of Educational Workers “Teacher”, told Novye Izvestia.

The result of all this is professional burnout and the exodus of teachers from schools. Actually, the parental community began to sound the alarm about this: one teacher for 2-3 subjects is not an option for high-quality learning.

“Teachers leave because they have to combine their main job with work, for example, as a psychologist and with several other positions. Additional workload in the form of circles, sections, preparation for the VLOOKUP - All-Russian Testing Works, is not paid in any way. As a result of exorbitant workloads, teachers simply “break down”. We in the region are now fighting for the teacher's salary to be equal to the 2nd minimum minimum wage", - comments Dmitry Kazakov, a teacher from the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Even the Minister of Education of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Olga Petrova admits the problem. She confirmed in the media the fact of low remuneration for teachers in the Nizhny Novgorod region as the main systemic problem of education in the region.

“The Ministry of Education and the Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region are doing nothing to solve the problems of the industry, while spending billions on ostentatious, poorly performed work on the so-called“ improvement ”- laying tiles, laying new lawns in the Kremlin, etc. Even a private "School 800" is being built at the expense of budgetary funds, and the money allocated for it is several times more than for the construction of municipal schools. In this regard, the parents of students of state and municipal educational organizations of the Nizhny Novgorod region demand that the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region turn to face the teaching staff of the Nizhny Novgorod region and take measures to solve the systemic problem of the education industry", - the parents said in a collective letter sent to the editorial office of NI Nizhny Novgorod region.

By the way, the question why there is not enough money in the regional budget is quite amusing. After all, the Nizhny Novgorod region is the richest region of the country. In the next three years, the parameters of the budget of the Nizhny Novgorod region will grow in a positive way, the Ministry of Finance predicts. For 2021, the region's initial revenues are foreseen in the amount of 202 billion rubles. Of course, the budget for the year was formed in a difficult situation due to the pandemic. It would seem that it is high time to spend money on the main thing - the fulfillment of social obligations and support of people. But instead, an additional amount of RUB 148 million is included in the 2020 expense item. for the salaries of the Torpedo hockey players. Additional funds have been allocated to celebrate the 800th anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod in 2021, although the federal budget will allocate 20 billion rubles for these purposes. At the same time, the minimum wage for a teacher has remained at the level of the minimum wage in the region or even below the level of 12,792 rubles.

The second, no less serious problem is the digitalization of education, meaningless and merciless. Billions have been thrown into this program, but the end result has led to complaints from parents about overworking children and additional, unpaid teacher responsibilities.

“Digitalization must enter the life of the school, but it must be done rationally. There are many positives in digitalization, for example, it eliminates the scribbling. But sometimes they start to “descend from above” strange, little explainable instructions: for example, to conduct an online lesson on a certain platform. There is an Electronic Journal, which is very convenient as a form of communication with children and parents. But suddenly a directive comes with the requirement to register in some other system in order to communicate there with children in case of online lessons, plus a VKontakte group is required, so that there, for some reason, still communicate with children and parents. Teachers have a huge number of accounts in different systems, where registration is required, and this does not reduce, but takes time, "said Dmitry Kazakov, a teacher from the Nizhny Novgorod region, a member of the Council of the Interregional Labour Union of Educational Workers "Teacher".

“…They demand that teachers and our children resignedly take part in the experiment on Digital Educational Systems, in order to announce later that DSP, digital platforms are better than teaching by teachers! After all, the so-called "experiment" they carry out with a predetermined result, without making a comparison between training with the use of DSP and without it. In fact, this is not an experiment, but a scam with far-reaching goals - to replace teachers with digital platforms, which will allow teachers to pay various commercial organizations to use these platforms instead of salaries. We can see that the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region has money for anything, except for raising teachers' salaries!”, - says an open letter to the governor of the Parents' Public Association "Parents' Committee of the Nizhny Novgorod Region”.

By the way, according to their information, teachers of the Nizhny Novgorod region do not receive any additional payments and bonuses for using additional digital services and for tireless extracurricular activities on the Internet.

"NI" appealed to Olga Petrova, Minister of Education, Science and Youth Policy of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, with a request to explain why teachers' salaries are so low in the region. We received an answer that describes in detail the scheme for the formation of the teacher's salary. But there is not a word about raising teachers' salaries.

“In accordance with Art. 133 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the monthly wage of an employee who has fully completed the standard of working time during this period and fulfilled his labor duties cannot be lower than the minimum wage”, - the press service of the Minister of Education said. But where is it lower then?

And further: “Labor legislation allows the establishment of salaries (tariff rates) as part of the wages of employees in an amount less than the minimum wage, provided that wages, including incentive and compensation payments, which are elements of wages, cannot be lower than the minimum wage established by the federal law". That is, the teacher's salary can be set even below the level of 12,792 rubles, but so that the teacher does not starve to death, he may be burdened with additional responsibilities. And everything is according to the law, you will not find fault.

The average salary in the region has thus increased.

“According to the Federal Statistical Survey, the salary for January-March 2021: teaching staff of general education organizations amounted to 35,308.9 rubles, or 106.9% of the average monthly income from labor activity in the region; teachers - 36,085.6 rubles, or 109% of the average monthly income from work in the region", - says an information letter sent from the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region to Novye Izvestia.

To be honest, how to live on this money for a family with children is a big question for me...

But these 36,085 rubles with kopecks are only average figures. The sad face of truth looks different.

“If the school is large, you may be lucky - the salary will increase due to the“ incentive ”ones. And if the school is small, in general, there is nothing to count on. For example, if a teacher's salary reaches 40 thousand - this is not because the salary is such, it is mainly due to additional loads and responsibilities, due to combination, "- told" NI "a teacher from the Nizhny Novgorod region, a member of the Council of the interregional labour union of educational workers "Teacher” Dmitry Kazakov.

Low teachers' salaries are an all-Russian problem. According to the portal Gorod Rabot.ru, the average salary of a teacher in Russia in September 2020 was 37,923 rubles.

The salary of a teacher, according to data from open sources, consists of the base salary (at least 18 hours of teaching lessons per week, the more hours a teacher has, the more his salary), in addition, almost every month a teacher can receive a stimulating allowance, it is paid for winners and prize-winners of school Olympiads and for the introduction of new technologies. 5,000 rubles allowance - for classroom leadership. Work with disabled children and various health groups is considered separately. In addition, a rural teacher costs more hours than his urban counterpart. Also, the salary depends on the length of service and qualifications.

True, the situation in Moscow is completely different. According to official data from Rosstat, the average salary of teachers for 2019 in Moscow was 116.7 thousand rubles. This is not counting the monthly city remuneration for performing the functions of a class teacher in the amount of up to 12.5 thousand rubles for a class of 25 people. Also, teachers who actively use the MES (online platform "Moscow Electronic School") receive an additional 10 thousand rubles a month, and the authors of the most popular and demanded materials can apply for grants from the Moscow government for their contribution to the development of the MES in the amount of up to 300 thousand rubles, said in the press service of the Department of Education in Moscow.

But this situation is, perhaps, only in the capital. According to the data provided to us by the teacher labour union "Teacher", in St. Petersburg the average salary of a teacher is 50-60 thousand rubles, in Volgograd and the region - about 20 thousand rubles.

“In the regions, a teacher's salary may not exceed 6 thousand rubles”, - said Marina Balueva, co-chair of the Teacher's labour union. As for the "incentive" and other additional payments - everything is at the discretion of the school administration. And there is no need to build illusions. Marina Balueva, co-chair of the "Teacher" Labour Union, confirmed that today incentive payments are made at the discretion of the employer and are considered not a guaranteed part of the salary: “It turns out to be a game with interest, and ordinary teachers sometimes have no idea what this is about. If the employer wants, he will pay you money, if he doesn’t want to, he will not pay”.

In general, it is very likely that low teacher salaries are a purely Russian problem. In 2021, the ranking of countries by teaching salaries looked like this:

Switzerland - $ 6240 per month

Denmark - $ 6190 per month

Luxembourg - $ 5850 per month

Norway - $ 5450 per month

Iceland - $ 5430 per month

Germany - $ 4390 per month

Japan - $ 3990 per month

Belgium - $ 3900 per month

USA - $ 3900 per month

Finland - $ 3900 per month.

Against this background, the average salary of Russian teachers of $ 200-400 looks quite comical. In Europe, teaching is one of the highest paid professions. There teachers have a quality education and belong to the country's elite. The competition among European teachers is quite high. Mostly young people under 40 work in schools. In Japan, where a teacher's salary is $ 4,000 a month, this profession is one of the most respected in the country. The teacher is responsible not only for the education of the pupils, but also for their moral character. It is the teachers who instill in their wards traditional Japanese values. The competition between teachers in Japan is quite high: up to 20 people per seat. Before starting work, the future teacher must pass exams.

Apparently, we have a serious crisis with our teachers.

By 2020, the shortage of teachers in Russian schools amounted to 180 thousand people. At the same time, out of 73 thousand people annually entering the budget to pedagogical universities, only 33-34 thousand graduates then work in schools.

The research data of the Institute of Education of the National Research University Higher School of Economics is also depressing . It showed that the shortage of teachers in Russian schools is increasing every year. The shortage of teachers will inevitably affect the results of the final certification of schoolchildren. Most educational institutions lack mathematics and Russian teachers, despite the fact that exams in these subjects are required. Often, directors of educational institutions formally close these rates by other subject teachers. How all this will affect the quality of Russian education is not difficult to predict. How will it affect the future of the country - the question...