Why did Medvedev send teachers into business? Russian teachers are outraged by Medvedev’s “stupid advice” What Medvedev said about teachers

The reason for popular anger was the prime minister’s speech at the educational forum “Territory of Meanings.” Answering the question of a teacher from Dagestan why teachers have a small salary, and police officers have a large one, Medvedev replied that a teacher is a calling, and whoever wants to earn money will find an opportunity “to somehow, so to speak, earn something else.”

The Russians, still remembering Medvedev’s call “there is no money, but you hold on,” reacted to the next verbal confrontation by the prime minister with indignation. As a result, a petition soon appeared on Change.org demanding his resignation. “The Cabinet of Ministers must be headed by a competent, educated person who cares for the country,” the document says. In a short time, the petition received over 150 thousand signatures.

However, this conflict is more interesting for its background. Indeed, recently, Dmitry Medvedev has made obvious blunders more than once during his speeches, although, it must be said, he did not shine with eloquence before. However, now his mistakes are receiving increased attention. What is it – are the people tired of the government’s mistakes, or is the prime minister’s emphasis on the mistakes of an artificial nature? It is possible that this is so. After all, Medvedev is convenient for the Kremlin as a lightning rod through which popular discontent can be lowered into the ground. After all, one can hardly expect that Vladimir Putin will dismiss the prime minister. As you know, Medvedev is the leader of United Russia, and his dismissal would visibly hit the party’s ratings on the eve of the elections. However, there is also an opinion that the main beneficiary of this story is Dmitry Anatolyevich himself. As you know, the president does not like it if someone tries to force him to make decisions, so the petition will most likely remain unanswered, and Medvedev, on the contrary, will retain his post.

Vitaly ARKOV, political scientist:

– It is beneficial for someone to remove the prime minister from office by feigning dissatisfaction. In Russia there is a special portal where any citizen can create a petition and, if it is popular, implement a public initiative. What is done on other sites, especially foreign ones, is not of decisive importance for the Russian authorities.

Nikolay MIRONOV, head of the Center for Economic and Political Reforms:

“They are working against Medvedev both through Alexei Kudrin and through the pre-election opposition. Any unfortunate word or photo is immediately promoted in media publications and social networks. Another thing is that there is discontent in the country, so everything falls on fertile ground.

Alexey MUKHIN, General Director of the Center for Political Information:

– According to my information and indirect data, Medvedev will retain the post of prime minister after the September elections. That is, in the foreseeable future no one will replace him. At a certain point, it looked like Medvedev might soon “leave.” But now I would venture to assume that he will retain the post of prime minister after September 18 – and until December 2017.

On August 3, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in response to a question from a young teacher from Dagestan about the low salaries of young specialists, replied that you won’t earn much in such a field, and advised him to go into business. These words were spoken during the speech of the head of the Russian government at the youth forum “Territory of Meanings”, held in the Vladimir region.

Young people warmly welcomed Medvedev to the forum; the prime minister was asked many questions. A teacher from Dagestan asked about the salaries of teachers, which are difficult to live on, because the salary of teachers is 10-15 thousand rubles, while officers of law enforcement agencies earn several times more.

Medvedev replied that the work of teachers is a calling, and for money you need to go into business. “I am absolutely sure that a modern, energetic teacher is capable of not only receiving the salary that is due to him according to his job schedule, but also somehow, so to speak, earning something else,” he said.

Medvedev explained that he himself, while working as a teacher, worked a lot extra - he led seminars, gave lectures, “making ends meet.”

“But the most important thing, I say again, is personal choice. I am often asked about this: both about teachers and professors. You know, this is a calling. And if you want to earn money, there are a lot of great places where you can do it faster and better. The same business,” summed up the Prime Minister.

Medvedev's statement shook up both the blogosphere and social networks. Users were outraged by the words of the Russian Prime Minister calling on teachers to go into business for money.

Yuri Zakharov from Tyumen recalled the famous mythical passage from Lenin’s quote, without excluding the connection between the character of this passage and the head of government: “Someone said that any cook can rule the state. Isn't he one of these?

Muscovite Ilya Andreevich gave advice to Medvedev: “Then we should generally charge a tax for teaching! Don’t squander your salaries!”

In turn, a resident of Bryansk, Alexander Beskov, wanted to see Medvedev in an unusual role: “He would like to organize a stand-up show, it never ceases to please.”

At the same time, Donetsk resident Alexander Parfiryev is confident that, having made the transition from teaching to the business sphere, teachers will go from the frying pan into the fire: “Of course, but in business they will choke you with taxes and inspections!”

St. Petersburg resident Elena Mikheeva is not sure of the adequacy of the prime minister’s statements: “Something blows Medvedev’s mind, he says such things without thinking... I answered a male teacher that if teachers are not satisfied with their salaries, you can go into another field, into business, for example ... And who will teach the children at school? There is not a single school in St. Petersburg that is 100% staffed. Where are his copywriters? Let them write speeches for him, otherwise there will soon be unrest in the country because of him.”

Galina Shcherbak from Murmansk was upset by the Prime Minister’s statements: “It is not clear why work according to one’s vocation cannot be adequately paid. I was very upset. It becomes really sad when you understand the direction of thoughts of those who are at the helm of the country. Therefore, probably, training is now gradually but surely being transformed into business.”

A segment of Twitter users also responded to Medvedev’s statement. Thus, user Alexustas recalled the famous TV series Breaking Bad, in which the main character, chemistry teacher Walter White, is forced to make a living by making chemical drugs. “One of my friends, a chemistry teacher, decided to go into business after Medvedev’s statement!” - wrote Alexustas, accompanying his tweet with a screenshot from the series.

User Fred_ino reacted to the part of the prime minister’s phrase in which the security forces appeared: “Medvedev modestly kept silent about the fact that the security forces have been in business for a long time.”

In turn, Willi_rusland did not rule out that after Medvedev’s words it is worth preparing for the worst: “In the early 90s, teachers, out of hunger, went into “business” - selling seeds at the market. Apparently, Medvedev is preparing us for something terrible.”

User Antonsemakin reacted sarcastically to Medvedev’s words: “Medvedev advised teachers dissatisfied with their salaries to go fight in the DPR.”

Some users even remembered Russian classics. So, 23kiskis remembered Pushkin: “Oh, how many wonderful discoveries Medvedev Dima gave us…”.

In addition to statements, memes with frames from the TV series “Breaking Bad,” as well as a picture with the image of Dmitry Medvedev and the inscription “Nothing personal, just business,” were popular in the comments.

Officials are increasingly losing their sense of reality, and they are communicating with their fellow citizens more and more cynically and shamelessly. © Photo from government.ru

At the “Territory of Meanings” forum, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, when asked about the low salaries of teachers, replied that being a teacher is a calling, and those who want to earn money could become businessmen. The head of government also suggested that an energetic teacher would find an opportunity to “somehow, so to speak, earn something else.” These words of the prime minister caused indignation among Russians. A petition immediately appeared on the Internet calling for the resignation of the Prime Minister. Within ten hours from the moment the petition was created, the number of signatures exceeded 50 thousand people.

Dmitry Medvedev’s statement about small teachers’ salaries as an acceptable norm is unacceptable for the Prime Minister, says Sergei Pogodin, director of school No. 4 in the city of Nelidov in the Tver region. As the teacher told a Rosbalt correspondent, for this reason he signed an online petition calling for Medvedev’s resignation. “I believe that the prime minister cannot talk about teachers’ salaries like this: “if you want to get money, then go into business...” Pogodin emphasized.

The director noted that teachers in schools, indeed, earn unacceptably little. “The teacher’s salary now is 7,800 rubles. In order for teachers to receive an “average” salary, they have to take two rates or more,” stated Sergei Pogodin.

Dmitry Medvedev’s words about the “normality” of small teachers’ salaries are perceived among teachers as another slap in the face, said Andrei Rudoy, ​​a member of the council of the interregional trade union “Teacher”. “Everyone is already accustomed to spitting from the authorities. This is just another slap in the face that will be accepted,” Rudoy stated.

The teacher emphasized that from an economic point of view, the proposal for teachers to go into business is absurd. “The structure of society is such that there is no place in the market for so many businessmen. Teachers make up about one percent of the country's population. Even if they go into small business, the market simply will not accept them. Moreover, we can recall the statistics that one out of forty business enterprises that start operating survives. But even if teachers go into business, who will teach children? After all, there are already enough problems in education. Of course, Medvedev’s statement is meaningless in all respects: both from an economic point of view and simply from a human one,” Rudoy said.

Dmitry Medvedev’s words indicate the government’s policy of commercializing everything and everyone, including the education sector, says Nikolai Sosnov, a representative of the “Civil Initiative for Free Education”. As the social activist said, the school is increasingly involved in commercial activity and this is harmful to education.

“The schooling business has been going on for a long time. Thanks to the reforms of the last decade, such as the Unified State Exam, Federal Law-83 or the new law on education, a legal framework has been provided for business on formally free education. It's now legal to make money from public schooling. Medvedev's words only confirm this trend. The head of government clearly indicated: the authorities want to see businessmen in the school, and those who cannot or who don’t like it should sit quietly and not ask for a salary increase,” stated Nikolai Sosnov.

According to the social activist, attempts by school leaders to “make money” often go beyond the boundaries of both morality and laws. “For example, only recently we were sent a detailed story about how the director of one district school rented out its walls for advertising. Billboards advertising women's underwear were to be installed on the building. The situation was monitored in a timely manner and resolved “under the carpet.” Another recent example. A paid weightlifting club was organized in a rural school, ostensibly for schoolchildren. In fact, under the guise of a children's club, a commercial hall for adults operated, and the money went to no one knows where. And many more examples can be given. This is bad because the school director should not be involved in business, he has other tasks. If he only thinks about how to get money, the educational process is over. It turns out like the joke about the policeman who thought that they gave him a gun to “spin.” And I’m also talking about normal directors. But there are outright scammers,” Nikolai Sosnov listed.

According to the social activist, a significant part of teachers will not make a business out of school, but those who follow this path can go very “far.” “Once I had to talk with one director, and he told me that during advanced training courses he was taught how to make a school self-sustaining, and ideally, profitable. All this is presented as a benefit for the students, they say, if there is more money, the director will be able to do a lot for the school. In practice, business in educational institutions destroys the very foundations of the education system. The recent revelation of a grandiose fraudulent scheme at the Penza Technological University, the arrest of the rector of the Far Eastern Federal University, regular criminal cases against school directors - this is the tip, but we do not see the iceberg. We will only see it when Russia attacks it in a big way and sinks to the bottom of the third world like the Titanic, because without a normal education system our country is doomed to vegetate,” Sosnov noted.

News about attempts by teachers to “earn money,” indeed, can often be found in sections of crime chronicles or under the heading “Scandals.” And this is not surprising - teachers in institutes were not trained for business, and people with an entrepreneurial spirit do not become teachers.

In Novocheboksarsk, a young Russian language teacher worked part-time dancing in a nightclub. The parent of one of the schoolgirls was surprised to see her daughter's teacher on stage performing go-go. A mathematics teacher from a Moscow gymnasium, in her free time, worked part-time not only by tutoring, but also by demonstrating products in a lingerie store. Students had the opportunity to see their “strict teacher” on the Internet in a not at all strict negligee. In Kaliningrad, parents of kindergarten students learned that their music teacher was also known under the creative pseudonym Nastya Monpasier - the girl danced striptease and provided intimate services to clients.

This spring, police in Novosibirsk alternately detained two teachers - a man and a woman. Their teaching professions were different, but their part-time jobs were similar: both were involved in drug distribution. Their colleague from Kamensk-Uralsky also sold drugs, and in addition also made homemade weapons. In the apartment of a music teacher in the wind instrument class, law enforcement officers seized five homemade pistols.

School directors also sometimes find themselves in the dock, although more often for other crimes. If extortion of gifts by teachers is sometimes tolerated by society, then school directors, as civil servants, are responsible for bribes or theft of school funds. And the director of school No. 11 in Voskresensk, Nina Medvedeva, who worked part-time as the head of the local election commission, several years ago found herself in the dock for falsifying election results at a polling station.

Director of the Institute of Globalization Problems Mikhail Delyagin criticized the prime minister's assertion that big money can be earned by going into business. The well-known economist recalled that only after the increase in social contributions, more than half a million individual enterprises were closed in the country, and recently support for small businesses has been reduced significantly.

“A business, if it is not a business of cutting up budget money or an oligarchic business of exporting raw materials, is feeling very bad. Going into business to make money is like going on a sexy walking tour to a well-known small Peruvian town. When Dmitry Medvedev said that you need to make money, he probably didn’t mean business. He said this for the sake of decency, but most likely he meant corruption,” the expert noted.

Medvedev’s refusal to discuss the unacceptability of low teachers’ salaries indicates that the government does not intend to implement the May decrees of the Russian President, Delyagin believes. “But we are not talking about big earnings, but about human earnings that would allow teachers to live like human beings and make ends meet. According to Mr. Medvedev, a teacher should not receive money that is enough for a normal life. Apparently, this is the fundamental position of United Russia and the government,” stated Mikhail Delyagin.

According to the economist, low teacher salaries affect the entire development of the country. “This is an expression of complete contempt for Russia. A teacher is a person who creates a nation. It was said at one time that a Prussian teacher won the battle of Sadovaya, and a Soviet teacher won the battle of Stalingrad. “United Russia and its leader Medvedev made sure that Russia would never win again,” Delyagin noted.

Officials are increasingly losing their sense of reality, and they are communicating with their fellow citizens more and more cynically and shamelessly. Who or what will bring them to their senses?

Dmitry Remizov

If we didn’t have Dmitry Medvedev, we would have to invent him. Because he cuts through the truth with a frankness that any opposition can envy. At the same time, you reveal your own incompetence so naively that you can’t help but think: if the prime minister is like that, what are his subordinates like?

Here is another “wise” advice to the impoverished population from the Prime Minister: to Russian teachers who are dissatisfied with a salary of 15 thousand rubles, he said that teaching is a calling, “and if you want to earn money, there are a lot of great places where you can do it faster and better. Same business." And besides, according to Dmitry Anatolyevich, a hard-working teacher can “somehow, so to speak, earn something else” - in addition to the basic salary.

These are the rosy ideas, apparently, that are painted in the head of the second person in the state: uninterested grabbers without a vocation, thinking only about money, will leave school and start a profitable business and will be very happy. In their place will come energetic, hardworking teachers who will not be embarrassed by meager salaries, because they have a calling, and therefore will also be very happy. And the most energetic of them, in their free time from their main jobs, will start working part-time in business and combine their vocation with wealth - that is, there will be no limit to their happiness.

Such views of the prime minister are quite understandable: we all know very well about government officials who quite successfully manage to combine their main activities with business, even a very large one. But here’s the problem: what the officials can do, for some reason the teachers can’t do it.

The director of the Transbaikal school, Valentina Manikovskaya, tried to explain to the prime minister what the reason for this paradox is and why teachers are so unlucky. In simple and accessible words, she explained things that are understandable to the vast majority of us: that doing business requires a lot of time, which a teacher does not have, because work by vocation requires enormous dedication and takes almost 24 hours a day. That a business needs initial capital, but a teacher’s salary is only enough to last until the next salary, and even then with difficulty.

As for overly greedy teachers leaving for business “to make ends meet,” this is, of course, possible, but it is fraught with very sad consequences: a holy place (even a low-paid one) is never empty, and others will come to take the place of departed teachers. Those who, due to weak abilities and other shortcomings, cannot find another job. And our children will be taught by those who are not fit for anything else... And this is not fun at all, Dmitry Anatolyevich.

Therefore, it makes sense to familiarize yourself with the experience of other countries - those where education (and the economy in general, which is a consequence of education) is doing well. There, teachers' earnings are not left to the market, and they are quite comparable to the income of an average businessman. For example, in Germany, a teacher's salary ranges from 3,200 to 4,700 euros per month. And in Finland, even a novice teacher receives 3,600 euros per month. As a result, the largest competition in Finnish universities is for teaching departments. Accordingly, the smartest people go there. Accordingly, smart teachers prepare good personnel for the economy. Accordingly, the economy is good.

So, maybe it’s not worth sending teachers after all? Even if it’s for business.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev during a conversation with participants of the “Territory of Meanings” forum on Klyazma, he advised teachers who were complaining about low salaries to earn money in business. “I am often asked about teachers and professors. This is a calling, and if you want to earn money, there are a lot of great places where you can do it faster and better. The same business,” said Mr. Medvedev.

The Prime Minister’s statement was a response to a question from a teacher from Dagestan about why in Russia the salaries of security forces are much higher than the salaries of teachers.

Medvedev responded by saying that when he worked as a teacher after graduating from university, he received 90 rubles a month, while novice police officers received 250 rubles.

The Prime Minister's speech caused a lively reaction on social networks - among the statements on this matter there were many critical remarks.

“Dmitry Anatolyevich confuses bland with sweet. A teacher should not make ends meet, as he said in his speech. A teacher should not look for a way to earn money on the side. A teacher should work normally and comfortably. You can give a damn about our profession, as, in fact, has been done for many years, but history shows that national security and teaching are very strongly interconnected, even more than with the security forces,” said “Teacher of the Year” in an interview with the radio station “Moscow Speaks.” -2009", physics teacher at Noginsk school No. 5 Vadim Muranov.

“It’s especially interesting - in what miracle country did the police receive 250 rubles? I stood at the machine, exceeded the plan and did not always get 250, and not for everyone. By the way, later I served in the police in another country. In 1992, my salary was 26 (twenty-six) US dollars, and in 1998 it was as much as 180 US dollars,” the famous publicist and translator Dmitry “Goblin” Puchkov, former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

About “good mood and health”

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev owns a large number of phrases that are remembered by the people and have become practically aphorisms.

In May 2016, during the Russian Prime Minister’s visit to Crimea, a pensioner approached Medvedev and complained about the low level of pensions.

Responding to the woman, the Prime Minister, in particular, said: “There is simply no money now. If we find the money, we'll do the indexing. You hang in here, all the best, good mood and health to you.”

This statement immediately entered folklore and still circulates throughout the country.

Commenting on this speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “I have not seen Dmitry Anatolyevich say anything similar about this. You can always either take a phrase from the context as such, or take it from that general conversation: also, according to the words, everything may coincide, but in spirit, the meaning, perhaps, can be presented somehow differently.”

The head of state is absolutely right - we are simply not talking about the most successfully constructed phrase. However, it is not for nothing that the proverb says: “A word is not a sparrow; if it flies out, you cannot catch it!”

About the “young country of Russia”

On December 31, 2010, delivering a New Year's address to the people as president, Dmitry Medvedev said: “We have a rich and ancient history, and we are rightfully proud of it. And at the same time, Russia is a young country. Let me remind you that she will only be twenty years old next year.”

As with Medvedev’s recent speech in Crimea, the politician did not mean anything bad. However, the formulation “Russia is a young country, it is only 20 years old” surprised many. It turned out that the Russian Federation does not identify itself not only with the Soviet period, but also distances itself from the thousand-year history of Russian statehood as a whole. Meanwhile, the Russian Federation, for example, is officially the legal successor of the USSR under international agreements.

Medvedev’s words about “a young country, which is only 20 years old” were also included in the “golden fund” of his statements.

About words “cast in granite”

In December 2009, at a meeting of the commission on economic modernization Head of Russian Technologies Sergei Chemezov After the speech of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, he asked for the floor to respond, as he put it, to the “remark” of the head of state.

Medvedev did not like Chemezov’s remark, and he snapped: “It’s not my remark, but a sentence. You have the replicas. But what I say is cast in granite.”

According to reference books, granite is an acidic igneous intrusive rock consisting of quartz, plagioclase, potassium feldspar and micas - biotite and/or muscovite. Granites are the most important rocks of the earth's crust. They are widespread and form the basis of most of all continents.

Granite is used as a facing stone, as the main material for making monuments, but casting anything from it is quite problematic.

Of course, we are once again talking about inaccurate formulation.

About “big and fat cats” in sports

In 2010, after the unsuccessful 2010 Olympics for Russia in Vancouver, Dmitry Medvedev uttered words that are extremely relevant given the current situation in Russian sports.

At a meeting with the leadership of United Russia, Medvedev said: “The figure of the athlete himself should be put at the forefront - not the federations, which in our country are sometimes big and fat, like cats, much less the heads of the federations and not even the coaches, despite all the colossal respect: athletes achieve success - they should be the epicenter of attention.”

Unfortunately, these words were not heard and understood. “Big and fat cats” from sports officials have brought Russia to the brink of exclusion from the 2016 Olympics. It is possible that at least now the “fat cats” will be thoroughly shaken up, albeit with a clear delay.