Teachers will be protected from children with gadgets

The State Duma adopted in the first reading amendments to the law “On Education”, designed to increase the authority of teachers. The main innovation of the bill was the restriction of the right of students to use telephones at school. During a long discussion, the deputies came to the conclusion that there are not enough restrictions – a strict ban on the personal use of communication means is necessary. For the second reading, the document may also be supplemented with an amendment on the resumption of compulsory labor lessons.

On Thursday, deputies considered amendments to the law “On Education”. The changes, as the authors (an interfactional group of deputies and senators) indicated in the explanatory note, are aimed at increasing the “authority of the teaching profession” and are designed to guarantee teachers legal and social protection. Introducing the bill, the head of the Duma Committee on Education, Olga Kazakova (ER), again noted that “the sectoral law needs norms on supporting teachers, similar to the law on healthcare, which outlines support for medical workers at all levels.” The deputy noted that today only students and their parents have the right to defend their honor and dignity, as well as the opportunity to bring an opponent to disciplinary liability, but in a “mirror situation there is no such mechanism.” The adoption of the bill, according to Mrs. Kazakova, will improve the situation. Representatives of the professional community, however, doubt that the amendments “will give teachers guarantees” (see “Kommersant” dated October 28).

The main point, designed to “increase the authority of the teaching profession,” was the restriction of the use of “communication means during training sessions in the implementation of basic general education programs.”

“Some schools have already dealt with the ban on phones, but not everywhere, now we are taking it upon ourselves,” said Olga Kazakova. She clarified that “if the use of communication means concerns the life and health of children, we are ready to make an exception, which is reflected in the law.” The second legislative exception was the use of communications for educational purposes.

It was this amendment that led to a discussion that lasted almost an hour; however, there was almost no mention of teachers’ rights. First, parliamentarians discussed how the use of telephones would be controlled. Biysultan Khamzaev (ER), commenting on this topic, wondered whether it was worth giving children push-button phones to school, and Tatyana Butskaya (ER) was worried that tablets, computers and interactive whiteboards needed for some lessons might be banned. Olga Kazakova noted that the implementation of the ban in each school will be monitored independently, after discussion with parents, and if the teacher sees the need to use gadgets in the lesson, no one will prohibit him from doing so.

The head of the Family Protection Committee, Nina Ostanina (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), nevertheless proposed to consolidate disciplinary norms at the federal level and issue uniform student conduct rules for all schools.

She was supported by fellow party member Alexei Kurinny: “Now smoking is prohibited, but many teenagers smoke and do not bear any responsibility for it.”

Elvira Aitkulova (ER) nevertheless remembered about the rights of teachers. In her opinion, there are no levers of pressure left on persistent violators of discipline in schools, since “we even expel with the consent of the parents.” Ms. Aitkulova proposed establishing the obligation of parents to participate in meetings to discuss their child’s behavior. Olga Kazakova supported her and remembered that when she worked as a teacher, the teacher could “kick out the child, and put him at his desk to think about his behavior, and raise his voice. Now teachers can’t do all this.”

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin called the amendments belated, but very necessary, and added that they “largely” became possible thanks to the Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov, who “supports the deputies”: “Previously, these issues could not be resolved because of the position of the relevant ministers.” .

Summing up the discussion, Mr. Volodin said that two main amendments need to be made for the second reading.

The first is to separate the topic of personal use of phones from the topic of using gadgets in the educational process: “We say that phones should be banned – both parents and teachers want this, according to surveys. No phones. And educational gadgets should not be mentioned here at all as an exception to the ban; they have their own laws.” Words about the need for a second amendment were met with thunderous applause: the speaker proposed enshrining the mandatory nature of labor lessons in the Education Law. “New technologies immerse the child in the virtual world. There is no work in this world, and it is important for us that children stand firmly on their feet,” explained Vyacheslav Volodin. In his opinion, labor will also help the development of democracy in Russia.

“This is the case when there can be a consensus,” Mr. Volodin announced before the vote. As a result, there was one vote against with one abstention, and the bill was adopted in the first reading. The Speaker of the State Duma asked the authors to quickly finalize the amendments to the second reading in order to consider them in early December.

Polina Yachmennikova