10 Facts about Russian Teachers
Here are a few facts and figures about activities of the most important in the knowledge-based economy professionals.
1. 2,024 thousand Russian tutors, teachers, and trainers celebrate their professional holiday on 5 October. More than a half of them (53%, or 1,079.9 thousand) teach at schools, 533,8 thousand work at pre-school educational organisations, 245,1 thousand at universities, and 165,3 thousand teachers and trainers are employed by secondary vocational institutions.
2. There are on average 14 pupils per teacher at Russian secondary schools (just like in the Republic of Korea; to compare: 11 pupils per teacher in Italy, 12 in Canada, 13 in Germany, France, Sweden, and Japan, 15 in the US, 16 in the UK); 14 children per tutor at pre-school educational organisations, and 10 students per teacher at universities.
3. Most of Russian tutors, teachers, and trainers are women: their share in pre-school education is 99,7%, in primary, basic, and general secondary schools 88,3%, in vocational secondary education (including vocational training masters) 72,6%, and in higher education institutions it’s 57,6%.
4. Slightly less than a quarter of school teachers (24,2%) are aged 55 or more, i.e. are in retirement or pre-retirement age. Half of the surveyed teachers intended to carry on working after retirement, to maintain the current standard of living. Almost a third of teachers (32%) will keep working because they like it, and believe their work to be socially important. Only 11% of teachers were not going to work past retirement, for various reasons.
5. About 87% of school teachers have higher education (83% have specialised teaching education). 73,5% of university faculty members have academic degrees (PhD and Doctors of Science).
6. Teachers admit to lacking certain specific professional knowledge and skills. According to a 2016 survey, 22% lacked skills for handling pupils with behaviour problems, 18% — pupils with health problems, 14% of the respondents would like to have more knowledge to work with gifted children. 15% of teachers wanted to strengthen their work-related computer and IT skills.
7. 40% of the teachers covered by the 2016 survey reported the amount of time they could devote to their children and family reduced. 42% of teachers noted they now had fewer opportunities for travel and leisure, and 36% reported reduced opportunities to buy necessary things such as clothes, food, etc.
8. In addition to full-time work at school, almost a third of teachers (28%) give private lessons.
9. Teachers get bonuses and additional compensation: for pupils’ results at the unified state exam and basic state exam (46% of teachers), for active professional development and mastering innovative teaching technologies (37%), for cooperation with other teachers, participation in joint projects and research (25%).
10. According to the 2016 survey, only 22% of teachers were happy about everything in their place of work. Among the things they were not happy about, the respondents most frequently mentioned high out-of-class load (45%), low salary (34%), and poor social security (25%). The vast majority of teachers (76%) wouldn’t like to quit their current job, and out of those who would, only 2% have actually tried to find something else, while the rest didn’t do anything about it.
Sources: federal statistical observations (data collected at the beginning of 2017/2018 academic year in 2017); HSE Monitoring of education markets and organizations study
Illustration: HSE press service
Graphics: flaticon.com/authors/freepik