Ten Facts About Russian Teachers

The Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge has prepared some quantitative and qualitative data about the work of professionals who are essential for the knowledge economy.

1. 2,024,000 kindergarten, school and university teachers across Russia celebrate their professional holiday on October 5 (Teacher’s Day). More than half of them (53% or 1,079,900) teach in schools; 533,800 work in pre-schools; 245,100 are university teachers; and 165,300 teachers work in secondary vocational education.

2. For each teacher in Russia, there are 14 school pupils (by the way, this is the same number as in the Republic of Korea, and for comparison there are 11 pupils per teacher in Italy, 12 in Canada, 13 in Germany, France, Sweden and Japan, 15 in the U.S., and 16 in Great Britain), 14 children in pre-schools, and 10 students at university.

3. Women choose the profession of teaching more often: their share at pre-schools is 99.7%; 88.3% at elementary, secondary and high schools; 72.6% at vocational schools (including master craftspeople in industrial teaching); and 57.6% in higher education.

4. Slightly fewer than one quarter of school teachers are aged 55 and older, which means they have reached pre-retirement or retirement age. Half of the surveyed teachers are going to continue working in school after retirement in order to maintain their current living standards. Almost one-third (32%) of teachers will stay as a result of their interest in their work, which they believe to be socially important, and only 11% of teachers are not going to work after reaching retirement age.

5. About 87% have a university degree (83% have a degree in pedagogics). 73.5% of university teachers have an academic degree (Doctor of Sciences or Candidate of Sciences).

6. Teachers admit that they lack certain teaching knowledge and skills. According to a 2016 survey, 22% lack skills in working with students with problem behavior; 18% lack skills in working with disabled students; and 14% would like to have more knowledge about working with talented children. 15% of teachers would like to enhance their job-related computer and IT skills.

7. In the 2016 survey, 40% of teachers said they then had less time for their kids and families than before. 42% of teachers said they had fewer opportunities for traveling and entertainment; 36% said they had fewer opportunities to buy necessary household items, clothes and food.

8. In addition to their primary work at school, almost one third of teachers (28%) offer private lessons.

9. Teachers get incentive payments and bonuses: for EGE (unified state examination) and OGE (main state examination) results (46% of teachers); active professional development and mastering new teaching technologies (37%); collaboration with peers, joint projects and research (25%).

10. According to the 2016 survey, only 22% of teachers were satisfied with everything in their job. Among the factors providing dissatisfaction were the high extracurricular workload (45%), low salaries (34%) and poor social security (25%). The vast majority (76%) of teachers do not want to leave their job, and of those wishing to do so, only 2% were in fact actively looking for other options, while the remainder weren’t doing anything in this regard.

Sources: Federal statistical survey (data as of the beginning of the 2017/2018 academic year, 2017), HSE Monitoring of education markets and organizations.

Images: HSE Press Service; flaticon.com/authors/freepik