Russia's teachers in crisis - VG

LOVED THE JOB: Kamran Manafly was a teacher for middle school students in Moscow. He says he was proud of his students, and their ability to think for themselves. Photo: Private

When Kamran Manafly (28) refused to show the students his Russian authorities’ Power Point about the war in Ukraine, there was a riot.

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Shortly after Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine, the questions began to surface in the classroom of the geography teacher at a secondary school in Moscow.

– My students wondered what was really going on. I tried to respond in a peaceful way, Kamran Manafly (28) explains to VG.

He actually had a “script” to relate to. In late February, just a few days after the war became a fact, the central school administration sent out a Power Point presentation to all teachers.

– They said that we had to present the authorities’ point of view to the students. But I realized that I could not be part of this propaganda, says Manafly.

It would cost him dearly.

This is how the war is portrayed

The presentation Manafly and the other teachers received was about the so-called “situation in Ukraine”. Through 20 posters, the story of the war is told – seen from the Kremlin.

Here is the Power Point presentation Manafly was asked to show:

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This is what Russian students should be taught, according to the propaganda:

Nationalists were behind the Maidan protests in 2013. The people of the Crimean peninsula became so anxious about the protests in Kyiv that they decided to hold a referendum to become part of Russia the following year. Russia and Belarus sought peaceful solutions to the escalating conflict.
But it became impossible: a nationalist ideology has been promoted in Ukraine in recent years, and fascism and Nazism have been justified. The Donbas region was close to a “humanitarian catastrophe”, and the Russian language and identity were suppressed. In addition, Ukrainian President Zelensky wanted to acquire nuclear weapons.
The Donbas eventually had to be liberated, and the people there rescued. On 24 February, therefore, the “military special operation” was launched, with the aim of “protecting the Donbas”.
But really, the “Ukraine conflict” is part of a larger conflict, namely that the United States considers modern Russia a threat, and is doing everything to prevent Russian progress.

Read these news articles for the actual version:

On the last poster of the Power Point presentation, next to a video by President Vladimir Putin, students are asked to solve a problem:

“Watch the video and discuss: According to the president, what is the purpose of the military special operation, and what constructive functions can the conflict have?”

Researcher: Ukraine is portrayed as an aggressor

The field of study for researcher and political scientist Jørn Holm-Hansen at OsloMet is politics and administration in Eastern and Central European countries, especially Russia, Ukraine and Poland.

VG has shown the original Russian Power Point presentation, to assess the content.

– As official Russia is nowadays, one could almost have expected that a teaching program about the invasion of Ukraine would have been even more blunt and chauvinistic than this here, he says.

– Part of it is actually quite neat, but almost imperceptibly it all turns in the direction that it is Ukraine that is the aggressive party. That it is actually Putin-Russia that has invaded a neighboring country does not emerge.

He further points out that according to the teaching plan, only Ukraine has fired at the Russian-backed separatists in Donbass since 2014. That is wrong. It is also shot the other way.

– There is a lot to tackle here for an alert and quarrelsome student with access to information other than that which comes from the Kremlin. And the discussions could probably have been good. But I strongly doubt whether especially many teachers in today’s Russia dare to let go of such discussions, he says.

“I have my own opinion!”

Kamran Manafly was outraged when he read the authorities’ version of Ukraine’s history and war, and made a choice there and then:

– I refused to teach this. Everything was just the president’s opinions, presented in a Power Point for teens.

Also read: Inside Pussy Riot

The problems started for the Russian teacher.

On his private Instagram account, he shared a photo from an anti-war demonstration in St. Petersburg, where he wrote:

«I have my own opinion! Many teachers have it. And you know what? It clearly does not agree with the state. I do not want to be a mirror of the government’s propaganda.

Manafly was quickly removed from the streets by the rebel police in St. Petersburg.

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PROTEST: “I want to live in peace”, it says on the poster for Manafly. Photo: Private

REMOVED: St. Petersburg police quickly removed him from the streets and took him to the police station. Photo: Private

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PROTEST: “I want to live in peace”, it says on the poster for Manafly. Photo: Private

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His regime-critical post on Instagram, on the other hand, remained. It spread quickly on social media.

Manafly says the school where he worked ordered him to delete the post.

But he refused, as he had refused to teach the Power Point presentation.

The next day he received a letter stating that he would be removed from the position until the situation is clarified.

THE LETTER: VG has slipped the name of the school and the principal. The letter, signed by the principal at the school, orders that Manafly be removed from his position and that he shall not be paid. No reference is made to any specific reason, but on the basis of the Education Act and work regulations. Photo: Private

– It was horrible, because what kind of immoral thing was it I had done? I had published a private opinion on Instagram, it was not even about my job, Manafly says to VG.

Also read: Such is the hunt for «traitors»

The 28-year-old fled the country. He is now with some relatives in the United States.

– It’s pretty tough to lose everything in one day. But here I can live my life, here I feel free.

EXPRESSED: Kamran Manafly took a stand against Russian propaganda. Photo: Private

Manafly is by far the only Russian teacher who is in bad weather.

Across Russia, teachers and university lecturers who have been critical of the war have been fired, fined and even reported to the police, writes the independent website OVD info.

Read about them here:

Info

Russian teachers threatened with silence

A researcher at the University of Volgograd was fired after posting a number of anti-war messages on the Russian social media Kontakte. When he refused to remove the messages, he was arrested by the police and fired from his job.
Two employees of a business school in Moscow were forced to sign their own dismissals as a result of their statements about the “special operation” in Ukraine.
An English woman in the Sakhalin region, all the way to the Pacific Ocean, was fired from school because she spoke to students about the Ukraine war. The students recorded the conversation and complained to her parents, and one of the mothers reported her to the police.
Another English teacher is accused of lying about the Russian armed forces, and according to her lawyer, she risks up to ten years in prison. In conversation with the children, she expressed her opposition to the war. Part of the conversation was published on Telegram. In the recording, she talks about “the totalitarian regime, which considers any dissent to be a crime of thought”. Under pressure from the FSB, the teacher pleaded guilty. She was promised a minimum sentence if she agreed to cooperate. The case has not yet been in court.

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Being monitored by the parents

One who is still in Russia is a 29-year-old history teacher with whom VG has had contact.

He has eight years of experience as a teacher, the last five of them in Moscow. Before that he was a teacher in the “province”, ie outside the largest cities.

The 29-year-old is in a difficult situation.

He does not support the war in Ukraine. Now he is threatened with dismissal at the school where he works, he tells VG.

– What is the reason?

– The principal gives me no justification. He’s just “disappointed” with me.

The man says that he does not conduct any kind of propaganda for his views in teaching. On the other hand, he has profiled himself as a war opponent on social media.

The 29-year-old does not want to be identified, because it could create more trouble with the authorities.

– Some parents follow closely what I express on social media.

– I speak as a historian

– I have never said clearly that I support the opposition, but I understand that it can be interpreted as such, the man says.

– So you do not agitate?

– No, I only put things in historical context with, for example, the Chechnya wars and Afghanistan. And the problem is, parents do not like it. The principal summoned me for an interview. I reckon it was due to inquiries from parents. I told the principal that I did not feel “guilty”. I speak as a historian in class.

Russian editor: – Must write about our killed soldiers

– Are the other teachers “patriotic” and support the war?

– When I talk to them, they are not. And even though the schools have been told to run a “patriotic” teaching, so I have the impression that it is largely up to the school management, he answers.

The 29-year-old says that the schools are offered propaganda lessons online with profiles such as the Foreign Ministry’s press spokeswoman Maria Zakharova and Margarita Simonjan, the most important media manager in Russia. Here the students get the opportunity to ask them directly.

Will return to Soviet school system

In Russia, there is now a debate about whether the country should change its entire education system – away from the Bologna system, which the rest of Europe uses, back to a domestic education model.

– I think it is right to return to the best domestic education model in the world. More literature, film and television programs with historical content need to be created. This will help counter Western attempts to influence public opinion in Russia, Nikolai Patrushev, the powerful secretary of Russia’s Security Council, told the Russian newspaper Arguments and facts.

He is supported by the first deputy chair of the Duma’s education committee, Oleg Smolin, who believes that the European system has made the quality of education worse, writes Gazeta.ru.

RUSSIA’S FUTURE: Russian children attended an inauguration ceremony of the so-called Pioneer Organization, organized by the Russian Communist Party, in Moscow in May. The pioneer organization is a post-Soviet remnant, and an element of communist education. Photo: YURI KOCHETKOV / EPA

This causes teacher Kamran Manafly to rage.

– The whole meaning of education is to increase students’ ability to think critically, but the way it is now, the opposite is happening. The school system in Russia is in a major crisis. If it is to get better, we must get a new government and new principals who are not part of this system, he says.

TEACHER: Until recently, Kamran Manafly taught at a secondary school in Moscow. He has traveled a lot to learn about democracy. Here during a visit to Oslo in 2018. Photo: Private

Affected by others than the school

But at the same time as education is becoming increasingly political, there are other channels of information that provide hope for Russia’s youth.

– It is not from the teachers that the students get the greatest influence. It’s from the media, bloggers and others. They probably have a greater influence than us teachers, says the 29-year-old teacher VG has spoken to.

Manafly agrees with this.

– Today’s young people in Russia have a strongly developed ability for critical thinking. They ridicule the propaganda, because they have access to independent information, via Telegram channels. They know what is going on in Ukraine and they are shocked.

– Can the rising generation break with the regime?

– They are the only hope we have. But many of them will unfortunately become part of the system in the future, when they apply for jobs in their 20s, Manafly answers.

PS! The board of the international teachers ‘organization Education International, where Norwegian Haldis Holst is deputy general, is considering expelling the Russian teachers’ organization ESEUR. The background is the strong support for the war in Ukraine that ESEUR has published on its website. It reports Educational news.

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