Marina Yardaeva Insults and overtime: why are teachers still not on strike? 22.05.2024, 07:59

At the end of the academic year, we remembered the teachers once again. How do the unfortunates close out the last quarter? Will they last until the holidays with the sedatives? Won’t it put completely crazy students and quarrelsome parents to shame? That’s the concern of lawmakers. And they promise not to be offended. Again, it started to be discussed that a separate article regarding insulting education employees should be introduced into the Administrative Offenses Law. And they still threaten with heavy fines. So that it may not become a habit for anyone to offend the sowers of what is reasonable, what is good, what is eternal. So is such a measure really necessary today?

First the point. What’s up this time? And now State Duma deputy Yana Lantratova is worried about the prestige of the teaching profession in society. She believes that teachers have been subjected to more insults lately, especially in public and even in the media. Therefore, he proposes to add a separate article to the Administrative Code that directly protects teachers and provides for fines of up to 700 thousand rubles for attacks on them. In case of emergency, it is proposed to collect 500-700 thousand from legal entities, 100-200 thousand from authorities, but from ordinary citizens with whom teachers interact most often – only 10-30 thousand.

At the same time, no statistics are presented to show that teachers are beginning to be scolded more frequently for their last words. However, the introduction of special fines that insult the honor and dignity of teachers has been talked about for several years. And everything is accompanied by a sauce that is no longer intolerable, everything is at its limit. I have been working in the field of education for seven years and this record keeps coming back, but no changes are made in the law and therefore school employees somehow endure this with their own assurance, even if the bottom is broken. for a long time.

In addition, the deputies are subject to Article 5.61 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. It was not explained why he was dissatisfied with the article. Secondly, it explains what defamation is and what responsibilities are assigned to individuals, authorities and legal entities for it. However, the article protects all citizens regardless of their professional activities.

And it’s true – you can’t offend anyone. And if we talk about the designation of a special group, such as socially significant employees, who by the nature of their activities more often than others face rudeness and unfair accusations, then there are many such professions.

Does this mean that after the clause on the inadmissibility of insulting teachers should be added a clause on the protection of the honor and dignity of doctors, then on the protection of social workers, and then on the special status of MFC operators? and then Russian Post employees and supermarket cashiers. So what? Who did not curse the sellers of the so-called “Pyaterochka”, who did not curse them?

But is it worth multiplying assets beyond what is necessary? If you really want to clarify something, why don’t you edit article 5.61, which is the same for everyone? For example, if you really want to scare hooligans and foul-mouthed people, increase the fines. Although the maximum amount now reaches the 700 thousand rubles that Lantratova mentioned.

However, anything can be written into the law, but how will its implementation be ensured? I know that many of my fellow teachers welcome various bureaucratic initiatives simply to better protect themselves. Sometimes they even feel such inspiration, as if now every careless word spoken to them will instantly turn into a transfer of compensation to the salary card. Many people seem to forget that teachers will have to defend themselves, that when a conflict situation arises, no attorney will file a lawsuit on behalf of teachers, will not bring witnesses, and will not go to court.

That’s the problem. Unfortunately, many school employees complain about the difficult lives they live only during recess in the teacher’s lounge and on professional blogs. But in practice there are always many obstacles to starting to defend your rights.

But teachers’ rights are violated all the time, literally every day. And insults are far from the most important problem.

Unpaid overtime, some strange duties on holidays, weekend events, organization of trips imposed from above, meaningless reports, the obligation to monitor the social networks of young people, forced participation in competitions and studying on the Unified State Exam, “Talking about important things” and other political information – for this only a few of their own free will and no one out of wild enthusiasm.

Who is violating teachers’ rights here? And school administrations, education authorities and the parent community. Who can protect teachers here? Just themselves. Being alone is difficult; It’s easier to just give up and start tutoring forever. But it’s a different matter if you unite at least in small initiative groups and organize at least something like the Italian strike. But they don’t unite. They sigh, argue in the void and go to another meaningless survey or something – imagine! — two-week courses for teaching children with disabilities (hooray for inclusion!).

It is painful to write this, but sometimes no one devalues ​​the teaching profession as much as teachers. But this is not only painful but also dangerous. They can also be accused of victim blaming (yes, these terrible words have even made their way into the realm of public education).

But no matter how difficult it is, it is still better to accept the problem. Of course, various psychological defenses are triggered immediately. Let’s not get into the bottle, they say there is no time, if everyone starts downloading their licenses, there will be no one left to teach the children. It is, of course, complete nonsense to play a stupid video about a healthy lifestyle in a mathematics lesson according to the instructions, but the video lasts five minutes, and it will take two hours to argue with the authorities, and then they will deprive you too. your bonus. And it is pointless to struggle with madness; Nonsense must be responded to in kind. And the eternal one: Wherever you go, you cannot go against the system.

At a time when the working conditions of many teachers are disturbing, it is somehow strange to even talk about the problem of some abstract evil personalities insulting teachers. It is even somehow blasphemous to promise severe punishments to teachers who offend them, when most teachers do not have the strength, time and most importantly the courage and courage to point out the same culprits. It would be much more honest to simply remind teachers that they, like other workers and even non-working citizens, have protection mechanisms and that they should not be afraid to use them.

The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the position of the editors.