By Andy Potts
Fears of “extremism” in the classroom could leave foreign teachers tied up in red tape, if Russia's lawmakers get their way.
Moscow's City Duma has put forward an amendment to a new law which would require all teachers to apply for work permits in addition to the work visas which currently allow them to teach here.
And, according to the amendment's author, Tatyana Potyayeva, the deputy head of the City Duma's Science and Education committee, the move is necessary after some foreign teachers were responsible for “inciting ethnic and religious strife” in educational centres.
In practical terms the proposal would mean schools and colleges have to spend up to three months processing the paperwork for new recruits, compared with about one month at present.
English language schools, which have enjoyed years of growth, often recruit staff with either the Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) or the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certificate – both of which might now become insufficient for would-be teachers in Russia.
At Moscow's BKC Language School, the largest in the country, visa manager Tanya Chibireva expressed concern that the new legislation would make it difficult to attract native speakers as teachers.
“The work permit procedure takes much longer - we are afraid people won't wait to prepare these documents,” she said. “It also means that all diplomas and certificates will be checked and we might find we can only recruit teachers with university degrees in language teaching”.
The popular CELTA and TESOL courses are usually taken by graduates from a wide range of disciplines, and provide a four-week grounding in teaching.
In most countries they are seen as the industry-standard entry qualification, but this new legislation could see them deemed unacceptable in Russia as lawmakers seek to push up standards.
This could have a knock-on effect for BKC, which is currently Moscow's only CELTA training centre.
“People choose our courses because they're not as expensive as in other cities,” added Chibireva. “Now maybe people will have to go somewhere else after these courses, but hopefully those students with good backgrounds can be employed by BKC”.
According to Kommersant, Yaroslav Kuzminov, director of the Higher School of Economics, said the planned new law was “like trying to cure a headache with a guillotine”.
“When they talk about “extremism” they mean teachers mostly from countries of the former USSR,” she said. “But I suppose there is another reason as well, and this is just an excuse. Probably they are worried that lots of people come to Russia as teachers because it's easier, but are actually here for other purposes”.
Chibireva also doubted that extremism was the real issue. “This was discovered in regions far from Moscow, according to the articles I've read, and it hasn't happened here,” she said. “From our point of view, we've never had such cases at BKC and it's unlikely to happen”.
But she added that teachers should not be put off working in Russia. “Our school has been running for more than 10 years, and we don't think this will stop us,” she said.
There was some support for plans to ensure teachers were properly qualified, though. Natalya Voroshilova, a teacher of English and Russian, said she felt that CELTA wasn't enough on its own.
“It's a nice course and very serious, but it doesn't give a thorough picture of all the different teaching methodologies,” she said. “A university course gives the whole picture of the language. It makes it much easier to explain why we say certain things”.
The amendment, which has yet to be ratified by the State Duma, would affect teachers in all levels of education, working in both public and private sectors. However, academics on exchange programmes would not be affected.
The State Duma is also set to consider plans to give five-year work visas to key banking staff in a measure planned to help Moscow become a world financial centre. The bill, put forward by A Just Russia deputy Kira Lukyanova, would also eliminate work permits for economic experts recruited by Russian banks [11, p. 6].
