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- Again with a minus: teachers are massively complaining about the cancellation of allowances
Again with a minus: teachers are massively complaining about the cancellation of allowances
Teachers of the Kamchatka and Krasnodar Territories, as well as the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, complain that incentive allowances are being reviewed, reduced, or even abolished altogether. For example, for checking notebooks, running offices, length of service or qualification category. Teachers claim that their income has decreased, and those who have worked in schools for many years will receive the same or less than beginners. The authorities of these regions explain that they are trying to increase the effectiveness of the educational process and improve the payment system. It is already planned to launch a new teacher remuneration system in Russia — the Ministry of Education is currently overseeing its "pilot" in three regions. However, not at all in those from where the complaints come from. Izvestia investigated why teachers are being deprived of allowances and what regional budget money is being spent on.
What allowances were canceled
Schoolteachers from at least three Russian regions began complaining about the cancellation of category allowances, seniority, office management, checking notebooks and other incentive payments.
"The teachers of the Yamalo—Nenets Autonomous District are dissatisfied with the abolition of bonuses for seniority and category, as this also negatively affected the amount of wages," the Teacher trade union said in an appeal to the prosecutor's office of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. — The abolition of the category allowance reduces the motivation of teachers to improve their skills. The introduction of the subject's difficulty coefficient contradicts the principle of equal pay for work of equal value."
The teachers explain that in June 2025, a decree of the regional government was adopted. According to it, teachers will not receive payments for checking written papers from January 1, 2026. Thus, this test will turn out to be the free labor of teachers, and without it, the implementation of the educational process is impossible, the appeal says.
In addition, a number of subject teachers will not receive payments for running classrooms (provided only for physics, chemistry, and biology classrooms).
In organizations subordinate to the Department of Education of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District and in the city of Gubkinsky, pediatricians no longer receive payment for checking written papers and running classrooms from September 1, 2025.
"According to teachers in Gubkinsky, after the change in the remuneration system, there was a decrease in its size while maintaining official duties and working hours," the complaint says. — Since the heads of municipalities are recommended to be guided by the decree of the government of the region, we believe that a reduction in wages will take place in all educational institutions in the region."
In addition, in November, teachers from the city of Noyabrsk (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District) sent a letter to the governor of Yamal asking him to reconsider plans to change teachers' salaries. Instead of the usual salary rate, schools plan to introduce "student hours", the size of which will depend on the number of students in the class. Allowances are also being reviewed.
"Starting from January 1, a number of payments will be canceled — for length of service, qualification category, honorary title and departmental insignia, verification of written papers, and head of classrooms," the letter says. "We fear that the introduction of student—hour wage calculations and unfair subject coefficients will lead to an increase in wage inequality for teachers."
The teachers are also unhappy with the proposed efficiency map. According to it, in order to receive the incentive part (30% of the salary), the teacher will have to take on an additional burden, for example, conduct master classes and seminars.
"In order to earn incentive points and achieve a decent salary, you will need to show a large number of activities, which will distract the teacher from his main activity — teaching students," the appeal says. "This approach will inevitably lead to a loss of the quality of education and, most worryingly, will lead to an outflow of teaching staff, both experienced and young."
Natalia Kozachenko, chairman of the city organization of the All-Russian Trade Union of Education in Noyabrsk, noted that there is a shortage of teachers in Yamal, everyone works at least one and a half hours.
"We're not asking for a salary increase, just don't take away what we have," she told Izvestia. — Cancel payments for the category and awards that people have earned with their hard work. It turns out that everyone has been equalized — both professionals with long experience and novice teachers.
Teachers from the Ust-Bolsheretsky district of the Kamchatka Territory are also concerned. In November 2025, they sent an appeal to the governor of the region, which was signed by more than 60 people.
"Starting from September 1, 2025, salaries have been increased by 25% for all teaching staff. The teacher's salary, for example, has increased to 9.7 thousand rubles. But in fact, teachers and other teaching staff of schools did not see a real increase in salaries, since the fund of each of the educational institutions of the district remained at the level of the previous academic year," the document says (Izvestia has it). It explains: at the same time as the salary increase for teachers, incentive payments were canceled.
"This erases all differences between teachers with higher education and long—term work experience and employees who do not have it," the letter says. — A teacher with higher education, more than 30 years of work experience and the highest category will receive a salary even lower than a teacher with secondary specialized education and zero work experience. The first specialist will receive only the minimum wage, and the second one will also receive a 40-50% surcharge as a young specialist."
In addition, Kamchatka teachers complained that since September 1, 2025, they have been left without rural payments — now these allowances are considered "part of bringing wages to the minimum wage."
What determines the size of the allowances?
Nadezhda, a teacher of Russian language and literature from the Krasnodar Territory, told Izvestia that the system of calculating additional payments at her school was changed from July 1, 2025.
"Our salary was slightly raised from 15,000 to 17,000 rubles, while other payments were cut," she explained.
According to Nadezhda, if 20% of the number of hours taught by the teacher used to be charged for checking notebooks, now payments have decreased by about 2.5 times — to 1 thousand rubles per rate.
— It is especially difficult for primary school teachers. They check notebooks around the clock, and they get paid only a thousand rubles for it. Some kind of disrespect for teaching," she said.
In addition, allowances for office management have been reduced, and payments for working with children with disabilities have decreased to 100 rubles per hour. According to Nadezhda, the average income of teachers at her school has decreased by 10-15 thousand rubles.
Additional payments, in particular, for checking notebooks, running classrooms and working with children with disabilities, are calculated at the discretion of the school's management, Lilia Kazantseva, a geography teacher at Krasnodar gymnasium No. 18, told Izvestia. She is one of those teachers whose income has increased after the changes.
— Last year, my salary was lower, although I had more hours. And this year I have fewer hours, but despite this, my salary has increased. Starting from January 2026, we expect an increase of 5,000 rubles due to the governor's payments," she said.
According to Lilia Kazantseva, the number of allowances for additional work at her school has remained the same, but she cannot say whether they have become more or less, because the workload has changed.
Izvestia sent requests to the Ministry of Education, as well as to the ministries and departments of education and the administrations of those regions where teachers complained about the new wage system. In addition, the editorial board sent a request to the prosecutor's office of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.
The Department of Education of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District confirmed that teachers had sent them requests regarding changes to the remuneration system. The department reported that similar letters had been sent to the regional government and the prosecutor's office.
"All received appeals from citizens and collectives are considered in accordance with the procedure and deadlines established by law," they noted.
The improvement of the remuneration system is aimed at improving the effectiveness of the educational process, the Department of Education of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District emphasized.
"Today we are faced with an extremely disparate approach to teacher salaries, where each municipality applies its own rules. For example, in some municipalities, payments for the highest category or checking notebooks differ four times. The main task is to create a unified, transparent and fair system," they stressed.
The governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, Dmitry Artyukhov, decided to postpone the introduction of changes to the teacher remuneration system to September 1, 2026, the department said. The regional Department of Education called what is happening in some schools and colleges in the region a "pilot".
"The pilot of the new system in Gubkinsky schools and colleges of Yamal is already underway. Teachers, especially those who consistently show good results, note that the system encourages improved learning outcomes. Their suggestions for improvement will definitely be taken into account," the Regional Department of Education noted.
After the results of the half-year and the entire academic year are summed up, the updated system is planned to be scaled to the entire district. The Department of Education of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District will also hold additional consultations with the professional community, experts and representatives of local administrations, the department said.
Natalia Kozachenko from the Yamalo—Nenets Autonomous District noted that teachers are particularly worried that the regions are trying to introduce their new wage systems, although everything is about to change at the federal level.
When will the unified payment system be introduced
The issues of remuneration of teaching staff of state and municipal institutions are regulated by the subjects of the Russian Federation independently, the Ministry of Education reminded Izvestia.
They also pointed out that in 2025, the President of Russia instructed to launch pilot projects in certain regions to introduce new wage systems for employees in the public sector of the economy in order to "eliminate unjustified differences" in salary levels.
As a result, the Ministry of Education reported that the new system (70% salary and 30% incentive payments) is currently being worked out in the Sakhalin and Vladimir regions, as well as Udmurtia. Based on the results of pilot projects, the Ministry of Education plans to approve a new wage system in 2026, and to implement it throughout Russia starting in 2027.
The department noted that all types of work performed by a teacher in an educational institution should be reflected in the employment contract or in the appendix to it.
Moreover, additional work related to educational activities is performed with the written consent of the employee — on the terms of additional payment, follows from the order of the Ministry of Education "On approval of the specifics of the working hours and rest time of teaching staff" dated April 2025.
What are the budget funds of the regions spent on?
Izvestia studied some of the expenses of the regions from which teacher complaints were received in 2025 on the website of the unified information system in the field of public procurement.
For example, the administration of the Donskoy district of the Krasnodar Territory spent 3 million on "making video materials about the activities of local governments." The Gelendzhik authorities paid over 30 million for information coverage of the activities "through television broadcasting." And in Sochi, they spent 5 million rubles on "services for the publication of official materials to ensure access to information about the activities of the administration in print media."
In February 2025, the governor's administration spent 10 million rubles on services "for the activities of the governor and the government of the Kamchatka Territory in the media," according to the website of the unified information system in the field of procurement. And in March of this year, 7 million rubles were spent on "covering the activities of the governor and the government of the Kamchatka Territory in the media and federal news agencies."
In 2025, the authorities of the Kamchatka Territory also spent more than 13 million rubles on "the installation of a fire alarm system, as well as a fire warning and evacuation management system" in the premises of the directorate for the management of the hotel and restaurant complex "Zypuchka" under the governor's administration. And the motor depot of the Kamchatka Territory Governor's administration this December purchased fuel for the first quarter of 2026 for more than 8 million rubles.
In October 2025, the administration of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District paid 4.9 million for "work on the modernization of the predictive analytics service." And in April of this year, she paid more than 500 thousand rubles for "services for binding archival documents." In March, the regional authorities spent almost 3 million rubles on "configuring and expanding the functionality of the Regional Contract System software package."
In February 2025, over 10 million was spent on the medical examination of government civil servants of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. And in the winter of 2024, more than 10 million were spent on "maintenance and technical support of the regional information system in the field of procurement." In December 2025, more than 3 million rubles were spent on the modernization of the "cable system in the building of the administration of the city of Noyabrsk." And in the summer of 2025, the authorities of the city of Gubkinsky paid more than 11 million rubles for the "development of the design code of the city district."
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