Leave the classroom: teachers quit due to low pay and workload
Teachers cited low salaries, useless work on filling out unnecessary reports and increased workload as the main reasons for dismissal from schools. They are also forced to change their place of work by the psychological atmosphere in the team and the constant change in requirements. Such conclusions follow from two independent studies available to Izvestia. Older teachers are more likely to resign because of disrespect in society, while younger ones complain about the management's attitude and burnout. Teachers admitted that they often face psychological pressure, reputational risks, as well as other obstacles to care from the management. For more information, see the Izvestia article.
Why do teachers quit?
Low salaries, unwillingness to engage in imitation work — writing reports, taking fictitious courses, as well as a high workload and a large number of additional duties, teachers were named in the top three reasons for dismissal from schools. Such data was provided to Izvestia by the Teacher trade union. In most cases, we are talking about employees of public schools, they added.
Among other popular reasons for dismissal, teachers cited fatigue from endless innovations and meaningless demands, lack of respect from management and a poor psychological atmosphere in the team. In addition, they were pushed to change jobs by a sense of disrespect for the profession in society, emotional burnout, conflicts with children and parents in which no one stood up for the teacher. Objective reasons for dismissal, such as retirement, poor health, or a change in family circumstances, were in the minority.
— Low wages as the reason for layoffs ranks first in all age groups. The second most important thing is the unwillingness to engage in "imitation work." Older teachers are more likely to resign due to disrespect for the teaching profession in society. Young people are more dissatisfied with the fact that the management does not respect employees and the school has a bad psychological atmosphere, and they also complain more often about burnout, the trade union explained.
One of the main reasons for teachers' departure remains the gap between expectations and the reality of working conditions, said Boris Kurbatov, founder and CEO of the Dream Job platform.
— Almost a quarter of former school employees indicate that salaries and bonuses do not correspond to the volume and complexity of tasks: "the rate is small," "low salary, high workload." In the reviews, this factor is often associated with overload or a situation where the stated rate and actual employment differ, they recorded there.
Other factors pushing for a job change include interaction with parents and students. Teachers complain of pressure or aggression.
— As former employees point out, there are very difficult parents. This becomes a serious stress factor for teachers, especially with insufficient support from the administration," he confirmed.
The schedule also has a big impact, especially if it involves working on weekends and holidays. For teachers, the willingness of management to meet halfway in everyday and family situations is of great importance. The desire to change jobs also plays a role in the bureaucratic burden associated with the need to keep logs, fill out plans and reports.
— We observe that job changes among the educational staff occur quite quickly: 72.3% of teachers leave in the first two years of work. The most common reason for leaving lies in the low salary and high workload. This means that the discrepancy between expectations and reality manifests itself very quickly," Boris Kurbatov explained. — If you do not work with this, schools risk "going through" the entire available reserve of teachers and facing a shortage of qualified personnel.
How is school dismissal going?
The process of dismissal from schools and colleges for teachers does not always go smoothly, teachers complained to Izvestia. For example, they were faced with a situation where the school administration did not allow them to resign on their own, refused to transfer, and even retroactively changed the data in the contracts.
"It took me a long time to get my documents back," said a teacher from St. Petersburg. — I came twice, and on the third I had to stay all day. It was a long way to go, so the last time I just sat there, picked up my documents and forgot this place.
In the case of elderly teachers, they were simply left without classroom guidance, and consequently without additional payments.
— I graduated from my fourth grade and was ready to take the next first graders. But they didn't give me a class, that's what they said.: "You are already 70 years old, it's time for you to retire." Although I was ready to work. In our country, many officials work in high positions at this age, and nothing happens," the teacher from Krasnodar is outraged.
In some cases, teachers have suffered reputational losses after their dismissal.
— A colleague was given a disgusting class, while the administration blamed her for all the problems, did not provide help. Initially, they took a large number of hours, and by the end of the year, retroactively, without her knowledge, they tried to reduce the hours," one of the teachers shared. — When she decided to leave for another school, our superiors began calling all the schools in the city and telling them which "radish" was going to them.
Even if the dismissal is relatively calm, the teacher may face psychological pressure from the school management.
— In general, there were no difficulties with dismissal, but the director told me about spoiled children and parents in other schools, he was afraid that the young teacher there would be "eaten up". In the end, nothing came true," admitted one of the teachers.
The subsequent activities of those who quit are divided into several roughly equal groups, the Teacher trade union added. About a quarter of them find another job in an educational institution with better conditions. The same number start working only as tutors. Another 20% are looking for a new job or moving to another industry.
What leads to the dismissal of young teachers
It is young teachers who most often face the problem of mismatch between expectations and reality, Mikhail Avdeenko, deputy chairman of the All-Russian Trade Union of Education, told Izvestia.
"When they are faced with the reality of a small salary, the specifics of teaching, and the student body, some realize that they have overestimated their capabilities and come to the conclusion that they cannot engage in such activities," he explained.
Young teachers in schools definitely need mentors who will help them figure out how to work in this educational institution, the expert believes.
— If the school has a teacher-psychologist, he can also be a help. If a young man cannot cope with the workload, you can contact him," Mikhail Avdeenko added.
He called working with parents, which is often accompanied by misunderstandings or even conflicts, another stress factor for teachers.
— In the case of young teachers, much depends on how they were prepared for real working conditions at the pedagogical university. This includes interaction with parents and educational work. Especially if a young specialist who has just started school is immediately given excellent guidance," he stressed.
Moscow City Pedagogical University
According to the expert, pedagogical universities need to pay more attention to classes focused on real pedagogical practice in order to prepare future teachers for work.
What to consider when quitting school
Dismissal from budgetary organizations, including schools, kindergartens and colleges, is regulated by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, but has a number of features related to the specifics of the employer, lawyers interviewed by Izvestia added. In addition to the general grounds for dismissal, such as redundancy, agreement of the parties, disciplinary violations, there are special ones in the budgetary sphere: inconsistency of the position held according to the results of certification, loss of trust, violations of anti-corruption requirements, deprivation of the right to engage in teaching activities by court verdict, Alexey Gavrishev, head of AVG Legal, drew attention.
— In educational institutions, it is often necessary to coordinate the dismissal with the trade union. In case of reduction, there is a mandatory written notification two months in advance, the offer of vacant positions and the observance of benefits for certain categories of employees," he added.
Continuity of service is important for maintaining certain payments, allowances, and early retirement. Teaching experience, for example, is counted in the preferential length of service, so when you leave, you should take care of the correct entries in the workbook and the absence of pauses in work for more than a month.
— In educational institutions, there is a ban on the work of persons with an outstanding criminal record for a number of crimes. Also, upon dismissal, they can check whether the property of the institution has been returned and whether access to information systems has been closed," he noted.
In a number of educational institutions, it is practiced to terminate fixed-term employment contracts with teachers and technical staff for the summer period, Ekaterina Kosareva, managing partner of the VMT Consult analytical agency, drew attention.
— This entails a loss of continuity of work experience and lack of earnings during the holidays. Legally, this practice is not prohibited if the employment contract was originally concluded for a certain period of time and the conditions were spelled out," she said.
However, in practice, for employees, this means that benefits that depend on continuous length of service may be lost. It is typical for budget organizations that fixed-term contracts are concluded during seasonal employment, but employees have the opportunity to agree in advance with the employer to extend or renegotiate the contract without interruption, the lawyer concluded.
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