Pure formula: what could be the new rules for paying teachers
The Russian Ministry of Education, together with the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, continue to work on creating a new, unified and transparent remuneration system for teachers. This was stated in an interview with the media by the Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov. The new system, which is currently being tested, aims to eliminate the existing differentiation of earnings and provide uniform, understandable criteria for calculating wages. It is planned that it will be tested in three regions: the Vladimir and Sakhalin regions and the Udmurt Republic. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
The system of remuneration for school teachers: the basic part and incentive payments
The Russian Ministry of Education, together with the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, continue to work on creating a new, unified and transparent remuneration system for teachers. It is planned that it will be tested in three regions: the Vladimir and Sakhalin regions and the Udmurt Republic.
Galina Kornushkova, Deputy Head of the Remuneration Methodology Department of the Personnel Policy Department of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia that the parameters of the new system have not yet been approved.
— Still in the process, we will inform you further. The instruction of the President of the Russian Federation on the introduction of new wage systems provides for an increase in incomes of certain categories of employees in the budgetary sector of the economy, the development of measures aimed at eliminating economically unjustified differences in wages, as well as reducing interregional and intraregional differentiation," explained Galina Kornushkova.
As the head of the Ministry of Education, Sergey Kravtsov, explained earlier, the ministries are now working to ensure that the country has uniform and understandable criteria for calculating salaries, without differentiation by region. According to him, the new wage system is designed to answer these questions, and it is already being tested. The initiative will allow aspiring teachers to get a clear guideline in terms of income and working conditions, contributing to increasing the attractiveness of the profession, the minister said in an interview with Rossiya 1 channel.
The basis of the new payment system is the division of wages into two parts: 70% is the basic part, which guarantees a stable income, and 30% is incentive payments, which will be set by individual schools depending on achievements and workload factors. However, it is the latter that raise the most questions and concerns among experts in the field of education.
According to Zoya Proshkova, a senior researcher at the Sociological Institute of the National Research Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, judging by the stated criteria, extracurricular and individual work with students will be taken into account in the stimulating and compensatory parts.
— Another issue is that it is not the preparation for the Unified State Exam and the Olympiad that is paid for, but the test results, although they do not directly depend on the efforts of the teacher. Sociological research shows that teachers are critical of incentive payments and would prefer a high guaranteed base salary," she notes.
The opinion of teachers about the accrual of incentive payments remains in the range from "subjective and unfair" to "overloading," Zoya Proshkova points out with reference to the relevant data analysis.
This opinion is shared by associate professor of Ural Pedagogical University Tatiana Dorokhova.
— The changes that are currently being discussed involve the establishment of a new ratio of teacher remuneration: 70% is the basic part and 30% is the incentive supplement, which should include additional payments for additional workloads. But for the system to work, clear criteria are needed, otherwise this 30% will remain a "bonus fund" at the disposal of the school principal. In my opinion, subjectivity should be minimized in financial matters.
Izvestia sent inquiries to the Ministry of Labor and the office of Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova.
Real wage growth or paper fiction
There are many doubts about whether uniform criteria will be able to ensure real and uniform wage growth across the country, given the significant regional differences and financial opportunities.
— If the incentive and compensation part of the salary is financed from the local budget, then regional imbalances will inevitably persist. But I would have counted on a real, not paper, salary increase. The experiment is being conducted in three regions, and we will know the results in a year," Zoya Proshkova says.
Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation Alexander Shevkin emphasizes that criteria are not a guarantee of real salary growth if there is no single source of payment.
— Do the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labor have "common criteria" with whom, or do they have different regions? The second case, most likely, will not affect the result. At the same time, it is not necessary to look at the popularity of the profession among applicants in forecasts, since in practice not everyone remains to work as a teacher, — Alexander Shevkin draws attention.
The people's teacher of the Chechen Republic, Alikhan Dinaev, also does not see any guarantees of income improvement in the criteria.
— This will definitely not guarantee a salary increase. But it can be a way to increase the transparency of payroll, to better understand each teacher's income expectations. The only guarantee of salary increases can be an increase in budget expenditures for teachers' salaries. Now teachers' incomes are growing, not exceeding inflation, and are inferior to other areas," he explained.
Centralization and regional independence
One of the pressing issues of the new system is the impact on the financial independence of the regions, where the conditions and financial capabilities of schools vary significantly.
— If we are talking about bringing salaries up to Moscow figures, then it is worth looking for other ways to develop the independence of the regions and get rid of excessive centralization. There is too much difference in teacher pay in the country. For example, in Moscow the salary is three times higher than in Ivanovo. To provide for themselves, teachers charge one and a half to two rates, and this reduces the quality of teaching and leads to professional burnout. We can't wait for the situation to worsen, reform is urgently needed," says sociologist Zoya Proshkova.
According to Tatiana Dorokhova, centralization is now the basic principle of education reform.
— If teachers work according to uniform programs, why do they receive such different salaries? I would like the 30% allowances to be as transparent as possible and reflect the teacher's labor costs, not just his merits. In many regions, teachers work with children from disadvantaged families, which is almost not taken into account in the payment, she recalls.
Vsevolod Lukhovitsky, a member of the council of the IPRA Uchitel, adds that without funding at the federal level, the very idea of salary criteria is meaningless. Trade unions do not hide their skepticism about the new rules.
"The new wage system should meet the natural needs of teachers not only for food and warmth, but also for the opportunity to rest, receive timely treatment and educate themselves," says Anna Sternberg, a teacher of Russian language and literature, a member of the Council of the Teacher trade Union. — The salary, which is designed to answer the questions of differentiation, does not please anyone. The trade union has long proposed raising salaries to two minimum wages, but the State Duma does not support it.
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