The Ministry of Education clarified the statement on limiting the workload of teachers

At the beginning of the current academic year, the average workload for the position of "teacher" in Russia should have already been limited to 1.44 rates (25.99 hours). This was reported to Izvestia by the Ministry of Education. It follows from the agency's response that such a restriction was introduced by an order of the Ministry of Education dated September 9, 2024.

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"At the same time, educational organizations have the right to use reserve lesson hours at their discretion and determine the place of assessment procedures in after-school planning and their number, which does not exceed the established requirements. At the same time, every head of an educational organization should not forget about eliminating excessive academic workload when distributing it," the department said.

Earlier, Izvestia reported that in about 20 regions of the Russian Federation, teachers work at two rates, and they do not work anywhere else in the country, according to the monitoring of the Teacher trade union, prepared by May 1. This week, the Minister of Education said that the workload for teachers should be limited to five to six lessons per day, which is about 1.4% of the rate.

Lyudmila Ivanova-Shvets, Associate Professor of the Basic Department of Human Resources Management at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, recalled that there is currently a shortage of personnel in almost all sectors of the economy.

"Another problem is the aging and reproduction of teachers. The proportions look like the number of retired teachers is ten times higher than that of young professionals. Such imbalances have been discussed for almost ten years. From the point of view of personnel reproduction, the situation is quite favorable in terms of numbers — the number of trained specialists in teacher training colleges and institutes can significantly reduce the shortage of teachers," she believes.

But, according to her, it is necessary to create conditions for young professionals to stay at school. The expert added that in almost all regions, the May presidential decrees on teacher salaries are being implemented, but schools should adjust the burden on teachers.

"As a rule, most teachers work for more than one job. Hence professional burnout, psycho-emotional state, and fatigue. And if teachers can stand it at a more mature age and it is difficult for them to change their profession, then young people go to a place where they will receive the same salary for one rate," Lyudmila Ivanova-Shvets said.

She noted that some regions additionally financially stimulate teachers, for example, the payment of classroom guidance instead of the officially established amount of 5,000 rubles may be more. There are additional payments for seniority, for titles, achievements of students.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

For one additional payment: teachers are overworked in all regions of Russia