Teachers have to work in military enlistment offices for free

School administration and authorities make Belarusian teachers do the work they should do and receive miserable pay for it.

Charter97.org received a letter from Vasili from the town of Zhlobin who writes how his wife works as a school teacher.

“My wife is a teacher. She earns three million rubles (of which 600,000 is a bonus for maintaining the school's website, giving additional lessons and other duties). Her work experience is 15 years. She finished a university and has the highest work grade, but has a miserable salary and a lot of nervous work. The education department treats teachers as slaves. Psychologists have to work in military enlistment offices and in villages for about a week every month. They fill draft notices and personal files in the military enlistment office. They have to visit homes and collect information about children in villages. My wife was given a task to visit 80 homes. Also, she has to deliver documents, though it is the job of postmen. Teachers shouldn't do this work! They don't receive additional pay for it. They also have to perform their direct functions on time. Is it an attempt to save money teachers' health?”

No one cares about safety and wellbeing of teachers.

“They do additional work without a written order, so the administration doesn't bear responsibility in case something happens. Why don't they issue written orders? Because teachers shouldn't do this work! Teachers had different incidents – dog bites or escaping from a forced party with three drunk men. The education department doesn't even print documents. It just sends them by email and say teachers to print them out at their own expense. Teachers are ordered to subscribe to the newspapers that have no relation to education – Gomelskaya Pravda, Sovetskaya Belorussia, Novy Den. You can be deprived of a bonus if you don't subscribe to them,” he writes.

Teachers also have to pay for technological progress in educational institutions.

“All schools must have websites, but they don't have specialists and computers for it. Teachers of informatics were ordered to deal with issue. The internet in schools has been financed from the budget only since the beginning of this year, but schools have websites and emails for many years. They paid for the internet, ink cartridges, a multimedia system, the repair of printers and computers from teachers' bonus fund. Teachers have to check the condition of the wiring, the heating system and smoke detectors in their pupils' homes,” the reader writes.

Teachers have to perform even more absurd functions.

“Teachers must patrol road intersections and pedestrian crossings to secure safety of children on their way to or from school in the morning, during lunchtime and in the evening. I have a question what housing utility companies, emergency services and the traffic police do. Teachers also have to give lectures on parenting and education at plants. It was a campaign during which school psychologists had to give free consultations in city parks. Are teachers considered to be good Samaritans?” the angry reader writes.