The Izvestia special correspondent became the winner of the main journalistic competition of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation

The names of the winners of the PRO Education 2025 competition were announced today during a ceremony at the Rossiya National Center. Sergey Prudnikov, a special correspondent of the Izvestia News Center, took first place in the nomination "ABOUT the Pro: about the teacher in his own words." The material he submitted to the competition is called "It's time for schoolchildren: Who goes to teach children in Donbass and why" and is dedicated to the Zemsky Uchitel program, which has been implemented in new regions since 2024.

"My heroines are three women who came to the DPR from different parts of Russia: St. Petersburg, Saratov region and Khabarovsk Territory. The topic is important, it needed to be covered," said journalist Sergey Prudnikov.

In the article, the Izvestia journalist reported on the implementation of the Zemsky Uchitel program in the region. He told about the first volunteers who came to teach children in Donbass.

First, the correspondent explained, I wanted to understand why these women chose this path — they went to a region where fighting continues for 5 years, where life is extremely difficult. Secondly, it was important to emphasize the importance of the Zemsky Uchitel program itself — schools in the new territories are severely understaffed due to the outflow of population. Thirdly, it was interesting to trace the connection of personal stories with the current historical time.

For example, one of the heroines, Oksana Bulatova, came here as a volunteer before moving to Donbass, helped the wounded in hospitals, and continues to do so today. Another teacher, Tatiana Naumochkina, chose the DPR and specifically the Azov Sea region, because her husband, a volunteer, fought in this area. Unfortunately, he went missing a few months ago.

In 2025, more than 4.5 thousand applications were submitted for the competition in various categories. The jury drew attention to the social significance of the texts, the reliability of the information, the depth of disclosure of the topic, clarity, accessibility and literacy of the presentation. The evaluation criteria also include the non–standard implementation of the author's idea, the expression of the author's civic position, and compliance with genre and technical requirements.

The organizer of the All–Russian competition "ABOUT Education — 2025" is the Ministry of Education of Russia, the operator is the Center for Educational Initiatives of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation. The competition is held annually to identify and disseminate the best practices in media coverage of initiatives and projects aimed at developing the education system.