Teachers’ salaries will be equalized by 2026

The president’s large-scale appeal to the Federation Council, which was announced the day before, continues to be discussed at all levels. Even non-experts saw that the head of state devoted the lion’s share of his speech to changes in the social sphere: family, demography, education. Putin issued clear instructions with specific funding figures attached – what will follow them?

One of the president’s most specific instructions concerned increasing teachers’ salaries. An increase of 5 thousand rubles was announced to all class teachers and deputy directors for educational work. And for those who live in small towns in Russia with a population of up to 100 thousand people – 10 thousand rubles.

“And this, in fact, is all our small cities, regional centers, towns, villages,” the president clarified. “So, from March 1, 2024, I propose to double the federal payment to such specialists for class management and group supervision to 10 thousand rubles.”

But that’s not all: teacher salaries will be completely revised. Now they are formed based on the size of regional budgets, so they differ greatly in different parts of the country.

“I won’t go into details, it (the payment system) is really complicated, and both deputies and government members understand what I’m talking about,” Putin assured.

According to the president, by 2025 the Cabinet of Ministers will create a new model of remuneration for public sector employees, including teachers, and test it through pilot projects in several regions of Russia. And by 2026, a final decision will have to be made for the entire country on teacher salaries.

“A huge block of the president’s speech was devoted to education,” comments the honored teacher of Russia, head of Education Center No. 109, academician Evgeniy Yamburg, on the educational part of the message. – And this is absolutely true, because education is designing the future. All proposals in the message were thoroughly verified and discussed with specialists and experts.

I’ll list it briefly. Support and higher pay for class teachers, increased salaries for educational advisers (directors). Everything that already exists in Moscow will be extended throughout the country, to new regions. Which causes full support, of course.

– How exactly will the teacher remuneration system be changed?

– Yes, this is a very important thing. We often talk about a unified educational space. If, for example, a child’s father moved from Moscow to the Far East, the student should not find himself in a situation where his entire educational program falls apart, because in one city it is one, and in another it is different. But a unified education system also implies a unified payment.

Today, unfortunately, the level of payment is determined by the regions. And the difference is very big. For example, if I pay my teacher less than 90 thousand, they will simply fire me from work in Moscow. And already in the Moscow region the level of teacher pay is lower. And, for example, in a city like Yekaterinburg, teachers of the highest category take a workload of 30 hours to earn 22 thousand rubles a month. This is not work – this is hackwork, it turns out. And not because they are so greedy. Simply, prices are the same everywhere, whether in Moscow or Yekaterinburg. But the salaries are different. In this situation, it is really necessary to seriously reconsider the system of remuneration for teachers.

It is still very difficult to get a job in a school in Moscow; there are many applicants. Now students with 100 points in the Unified State Exam are entering pedagogical universities. There is no longer such a situation that was mocked in the Soviet years, they say, “you have no mind, go to school.”

The specialists became teachers in Moscow. For example, a person worked in a bank, earned a financial cushion there, received a second higher education and came to school. I have such teachers, and what is their value: a person not only gives theory, he knows from the inside and can show how it works, how the banking system works. And this is also entirely a question of wages, equalization of wages, so that this happens everywhere. If we want personnel to be recruited into schools. Nowadays in villages it is not uncommon for high school students to teach classes for junior classes; there is no one else…

– Evgeniy Alexandrovich, the president also mentioned tutoring, without which many today cannot pass the Unified State Exam.

– Tutoring was, is and will always be. Even just according to the employment contract, the teacher has the right to do this. Because the rate at which children acquire knowledge is different, individual work is individual and is paid separately. But how was this problem solved in Moscow? Successful teachers, honored teachers, whose students come on budget year after year, conduct classes online for everyone. And if things aren’t going well for you at school, you can join and receive individual training. You don’t have to pay anything for this, because the state pays, in this case, the Moscow mayor’s office.

And since the message said that even the smallest villages will be digitalized (the president said that AI will be used in education, the network of libraries will be modernized and turned into digital centers, for which 9 billion rubles are planned to be allocated from the budget – Auth.), then from there you can join such tutoring. Absolutely free. I think that this is also a very promising and interesting direction.