Experts discussed how teachers should help the state

On Thursday, the Expert Institute for Social Research held a round table on the topic “The image of the teacher of the future in Russia.” Officials, teachers and political scientists expressed their ideas about the tasks of school teachers, once again repeating that their work does not belong to the service sector. At the meeting, proposals were made to give teachers the status of civil servants fulfilling “state orders per person.” The speakers also assured that the Russian education system is based on Christianity and Domostroy, and “the best of us” should become teachers. However, the only school teacher present at the meeting pointed out that under such a burden of expectations, “a teacher may simply break down when entering a classroom.”

On Teacher’s Day, the Expert Institute for Social Research (EISR, one of the main analytical centers of the Kremlin’s internal political bloc) held a round table “The image of the teacher of the future.” The moderator of the discussion, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Political Science at St. Petersburg State University Arseny Mayorov, began with the statement that “the teacher today is a confident user of the digital tools that the state gives him.” However, measures must be taken to ensure that it “does not get washed away in the information storm.” Senator Lyubov Glebova noted that education is already a “conservative sphere,” and the digital environment has only accelerated this gap: “Previously, the teacher was the main, if not the only source of knowledge, but now he must compete with the digital environment.” Therefore, she proposed making the teacher “a navigator who helps deal with all the flows of information.”

The head of the department of political research at VTsIOM, Mikhail Mamonov, presented to the audience the results of a survey conducted on the eve of Teacher’s Day: “We asked respondents a number of questions about their attitude towards teachers and received extremely positive answers.” According to Mr. Mamonov, more than 90% of respondents remember teachers with warmth, gratitude and kindness, and only 7% experience negative feelings.

“These are all highly emotional characteristics. This indicates that the public perceives the teaching profession as a calling, and not as an ordinary profession that provides any services,” the expert is sure.

Deputy head of the relevant department of the Ministry of Education, Alexander Kalyagin, assured that at the state level “everything possible is being done” to improve the status of teachers in society: “We are creating a single educational space – improving the technical equipment of schools, trying to reduce the documentation burden, developing a bill on the status of teachers, which will allow him be protected.” The official also recalled the unified educational programs that have been operating in schools since this academic year. According to Mr. Kalyagin, they give all schoolchildren an equal chance for a quality education.

Ms. Glebova said that the function of teachers has become much more defined because the new version of the Constitution “finally fixed what kind of person we want to see as a citizen of our country.” Teachers, in her opinion, “must fulfill the order for such a person.” Member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Education Natalya Kravchenko is confident that the “customer of education” is primarily the state: “Teachers must form human capital to solve the problems of our country. A person must be properly educated: not only have a patriotic civic position, but also actively demonstrate it, be passionate. If we don’t invest these building blocks in our children, other countries, both friendly and unfriendly, will.” She also noted that “the best of us should become teachers,” because you cannot “learn to be a teacher once, but you have to educate yourself throughout your life.”

The Chairman of the Council for Professional Education of the Russian Association of Political Science, Vladimir Shapovalov, called Domostroy one of the main works in which the pedagogical principles of Russia are recorded.

He delved into history and stated that the Russian educational system was shaped by the adoption of Christianity.

But the revolution of 1917 did not change the vector of development of education, the expert said, and it continued to be built on three most important principles: “humanistic principles, moral ideals and high-quality professional training.” But in the 1990s, Russia lost educational guidelines, Mr. Shapovalov complained, as the system began to capitalize and “provide services” instead of “educating, educating and carrying out the function of mentoring.” “Now we are slowly restoring this,” he noted. “We are raising the prestige of the profession along with salaries and raising citizens and patriots.”

During the discussion, they did not forget to mention that the teacher “chooses the path of self-sacrifice” and is also an “engineer of human souls.” Mrs. Glebova added that the teacher is not a civil servant, since his functions cannot be limited to working hours, but he is “in the service of the state,” carrying out a social mission. Everyone actively agreed with these comments. However, the only school teacher present at the meeting, a social studies teacher at the university gymnasium of Moscow State University, Boris Lavrinov, noticed that there were too many demands on him and his colleagues: “You say that a teacher is a foreman, an engineer of souls, and a conductor of the ideas of the state. But if you live with such a burden, entering the classroom with children, you may not be able to stand it and break down.”

Polina Yachmennikova