The State Duma proposes to raise the prestige of teachers by paying 41 thousand rubles

Why don’t schools talk about salary increases anymore?

In the Year of the Teacher and Mentor, conversations around two aspects of school life continue: how to increase the prestige of the profession and how to survive on a teacher’s income. The State Duma set out to kill two birds with one stone by preparing a bill on teachers’ salaries. If a teacher works full-time, then his salary cannot be lower than 2.5 minimum wages.

A recent calculation by VTsIOM showed, for example, that the average salary in Moscow for school teachers is not so bad: 144.8 thousand rubles. Probably, if you sum up the incomes of all head teachers and deputy directors along with subject teachers, because administrators also teach, then this will be the case. Although a more realistic figure for the income of a school teacher in the capital is 60-80 thousand rubles.

But that’s Moscow. Regions earn money differently. And judging by the reviews of teachers from different parts of Russia, the difference can be an order of magnitude: in rural schools in the Non-Black Earth Region, salaries can be lower than 10 thousand rubles (plus incentives, bonuses, etc.). In the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug or in the Far East there really are salaries of 100 thousand rubles, the northern coefficient applies there. But the share of money is not the same as in central Russia, since life is much more expensive in these regions.

The minimum wage in the Russian Federation today is 16,242 rubles. Accordingly, a group of State Duma deputies advocates that teachers be paid at least 41 thousand. Speaking about the relevant changes in the law “On Education” and related norms, the draft does not specify whether the system of basic, compensating and incentive parts of the salary, which operates in most schools in Russia, will be applied to these 40 thousand. Where the “base” is 70-75% of the total amount, which means 29-30 thousand. And the teacher will receive everything else only for good behavior. There is also no word on the new system of categories of school employees, which in theory should begin to work this school year 2023-2024. But the rate is tied to the category (today it is MS, that is, a young specialist, a teacher of the first category and a teacher of the highest category) and certification.

“By increasing teachers’ salaries, we will be able to once again make this profession prestigious, respected and in demand,” the deputies believe.

“In all my time as a teacher, I saw only one salary increase according to a circular from above – it was 2011,” says Nina Viktorova, a mathematics teacher from Moscow. – This is when Putin ordered to raise teachers’ salaries by 30%, and suddenly they actually increased them. The effect lasted for one month. The very next paycheck was the same as before: the base salary was increased, but the allowances were cut. Where there are no bonuses, you can somehow rearrange the hours, cut the rates… At school there will always be opportunities to “do it as it was.”

It’s interesting that even in their professional communities, teachers now don’t discuss the topic of salaries. The last surge of interest in the topic occurred in the summer of 2022, when another Duma proposal was made to introduce a unified teacher’s salary of 75 thousand rubles.

Today, teachers write more about the pressing issues, relegating problems of cash injections from the state and considerations of prestige to the background. More and more directors are trying to save money on cleaning and minor repairs, and since parents cannot be involved in all this now, they attract teachers to do this. Or they discuss the following situations: they were given a difficult class, there is a difficult child in the class, they overloaded them with hours, they got tired of combining them – what to do?.. There is also something new – “they are sent to study as an educational adviser, where to live they did not explain what to study, they did not tell – colleagues, share your experience.” And one of the current topics that MK has already written about is that they don’t give you a contract when you are hired.