In Dagestan, teachers support demand for Dmitry Medvedev's resignation

Dagestani teachers have to work extra hours and look for additional sources of income, including illegal ones, and the answer of the Russian Prime Minister to the question of low salaries of employees of the educational sphere in the republic is shocking. This was stated by teachers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

The appeal to the President of Russia with the demand of resignation of the Prime Minister, who treated the low incomes of teachers in Dagestan as the results of their personal choices, gained 144,255 signatures.

On August 2, at the National Youth Educational Forum "Territory of Sense on Klyazma", Gadji Kurbanov, a teacher of the Dagestan State University, complained to the Russian Premier about teachers’ low salaries. In response, Dmitri Medvedev said that there are other ways of earning money and offered disgruntled teachers to go into businesses.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the petition demanding the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev was created in the morning of August 4 on the website Change.org. As at 8:30 p.m. Moscow time of the same day, it gained 82,628 signatures. The author of the petition has claimed that the Cabinet of Ministers "should not be headed by the person advising the teachers to earn additional money somehow and somewhere in order to survive."

"At our university, an associate professor is paid about 20,000 roubles, while an ordinary teacher is paid about 15,000 roubles. These amounts are too small," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by one of the teachers of the Dagestani State University.

According to the teacher, the above is the reason for the corruption rampant at universities.

"This money is not enough to survive, and we have to work extra. Teachers take hours in other institutions of higher education. They write graduation papers for students. And some of them write credits in student achievement sheets for money," said the teacher from the University.

He has treated the Dmitry Medvedev's answer to teacher Kurbanov as "shocking."

A teacher of one of the schools of Makhachkala has also told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that his salary is simply not enough to survive.

"I earn about 15,000 roubles. And this is too small amount of money, not enough to feed my family," said the teacher.

The teachers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have joined the collection of signatures demanding the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.