Schoolchildren began to complain about teachers’ refusals to let them go to the toilet

The vertical of power has reached the toilet

The Ministry of Education should finally regulate the procedure for visiting school toilets – the department was called upon by member of the Public Chamber and head of the Safe Internet League Ekaterina Mizulina. The social activist outlined the essence of the problem on her page on the social network.

In her Telegram channel, Mizulina Jr. (Ekaterina’s mother Elena Mizulina is a senator from the Omsk region) reports that she and her team “sent an appeal to the Ministry of Education in connection with restrictions on visiting toilets by schoolchildren in grades 5–11 during lessons” . According to the social activist, Minister Kravtsov should deal with schoolchildren asking for time off during lessons, since there is a whole barrage of complaints. “I have received over 650 messages on this topic,” the OP member counted. — Schoolchildren from 5th to 11th grade say that in order to go to the toilet during class they are “required to provide a certificate” about the presence of an illness, are asked to “wear diapers” and are recommended to go out during recess. But the problem is that, as schoolchildren write, during breaks the toilet often turns into a “hookah bar”; it is almost impossible to use it for its intended purpose. Children have to endure it all day, and this is not the case at all. This situation needs to be sorted out, which is what we asked the ministry to do in a letter.”

We are checking the reaction of school teachers to the “toilet” initiative of a social activist in a secondary educational institution in the south-west of Moscow, considered prestigious among parents.

— Schoolchildren sent 650 complaints! — the head teacher of this gymnasium immediately understands what the problem is. — And the social activists started thinking, why are some students collectively sneaking around, pawning others?! They don’t let them out, the poor things, while others quietly smoke?! Of course, no one will allow our school bathroom to be turned into a hookah bar, but people also ask to go to the toilet in the middle of class. And two or three at a time. We are solving this problem ourselves, we are not attracting anyone, but I will say one thing: there is nothing good in this. Such collective trips to the toilet in the middle of class – either also in order to “visit the hookah bar” before the high school students arrive, or to look at a hidden phone if the test is in progress, or simply so that they do not call. As a teacher moves from new material to testing old material, everyone is immediately impatient. As for younger students, who sometimes really can’t stand it, they are always allowed to go to the toilet at any time during the lesson. But Mizulina also confirms that until the 5th grade no one complains.

Will the school bathroom be considered a problem worthy of attention at the very top of the vertical of educational power by secondary education experts? Are there any rules at all regulating students going out to relieve themselves during the educational process? — we are interested in the Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences and Director of the Moscow Education Center No. 109, popularly known as the Yamburg School.

— Do you know what I consider my greatest contribution to education? — after listening to the question, the honored teacher answers. — I traveled a lot, studying the secondary education system in different countries, and once in Britain (it was 1990), the host party, having learned that I was a historian by education, took me to the history museum. To the Museum of the History of Toilet Bowls in England – that’s what it’s called. And there I learned that the famous Russian “ochka”, which at that time was preserved even in many schools, was for England the 12th century, and in the 13th century porcelain vases already appeared. When I returned, the first thing I did was replace the school toilets with all the plumbing features for girls and boys. Not only a school, but any institution cannot be good if its bathrooms smell bad. Just as a theater begins with a coat rack, so a school begins with a toilet – it should be clean and modern, this is important. And the issue of turning it into a hookah bar is decided by local control: for example, we replaced the wooden doors in the toilets with matte ones; of course, it’s impossible to peek through them, but if instead of one person there are five in a booth, it will be visible from the outside. As for physiology, it’s different for everyone, there are no prohibitions on visiting the toilet during class, so I don’t see any reason to plunge the management vertical into the toilet.