The Ministry of Education will check the statements of the head teacher

The Ministry of Education of the Saratov Region will conduct an inspection at the Khvalynsk school, the head teacher of which stated that pressure was being put on her due to the fact that few applications were submitted to study the “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture.” On Wednesday it became known that head teacher Tatyano Kotserova will be fired in July as part of a planned reduction. The head teacher believes that this is a consequence of her speech on the radio and intends to challenge the dismissal order in court.

Secondary school No. 3 in Khvalynsk will undergo a desk inspection initiated by the regional Ministry of Education, the department said in a statement. The reason was information that appeared in the media that the head teacher Tatyana Kotserova was under pressure due to the fact that the percentage of students at the school whose parents chose the module “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture” has decreased. The ministry will check the school’s documents; studying and processing the materials “will require a certain period of time.” “Based on the results of the inspection of the institution, conclusions will be drawn, and if necessary, teaching staff and heads (deputies) of the municipal educational institution “Secondary School No. 3” of Khvalynsk will be sent to advanced training courses,” the department said in a statement.

At the beginning of April, the head teacher of the Khvalynsk school appeared on the “Class Hour” program on Radio Liberty. She said that at the beginning of the year, during the formation of the curriculum, she invited students’ parents to choose one of six modules of the subject “Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics” (fundamentals of Orthodox culture, Jewish culture, Buddhist culture, Islamic culture, world religious cultures, secular ethics) . According to Tatyana Kotserova, during a preliminary survey, 98% of parents expressed a desire to choose “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture” for study, but in the end, 89% of applications were submitted for this subject, another 13% chose secular ethics, and 4% - Islamic culture. “This information reaches the clergy, the education department, all authorities, and again - I did the wrong work, I am abolishing Orthodoxy, I am against the moral education of children, against the patriotic education of children, and so on,” she said on air. “I myself am baptized, and my child is baptized.” But I believe that the school is secular. As a head teacher, I must follow the recommendations of the Ministry of Education.”

In this regard, in Khvalynsk, according to Tatyana Kotserova, a member of the Public Chamber of the region and assistant to the head of the Saratov Metropolis for religious education, Father Dionysius, came to Khvalynsk, who talked with the school director Sergei Kotserov and allegedly hinted that “Fundamentals of Secular Ethics” was not worth teach at school. In addition, she said, an official from the district administration told her in a private conversation that she should be friends with Father Vitaly (heads the Khvalyn Orthodox gymnasium) and invite him to school, since these are political issues.

During the broadcast on the radio, the head teacher recalled that even before the situation with the selection of modules for the subject “Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics,” at a council in the district administration, she and the school director had already been accused of “inciting parents against Orthodoxy.” This happened after the parents of students in one of the classes wrote a letter to the director, in which they asked to ask their permission for an Orthodox priest to come to school, attend lessons and talk with children.

On Wednesday, Ms. Kotserova told the media that she had been given a dismissal order effective July 1. She believes this is related to her appearance on the radio, and is going to appeal the dismissal in court.

The head of the education department of the Khvalynsky district administration, Anna Ladoga, said that Ms. Kotserova is now working. “We undergo optimization every year; the staffing schedule in schools is brought into line. This is not specific to this teacher, this is happening in other schools as well,” she said.

Father Dionisy told local media that he went to Khvalynsk as a representative of the public council under the Ministry of Education in order to get acquainted with the educational institution. “There is a difficult situation within the school at school, and a person is trying to attach a noisy reason to his personal problems,” the media quotes him.

The ORKSE course was introduced in secondary schools on September 1, 2012. According to the results of a survey conducted in 2015 in the Russian Federation, 80% of the parents surveyed said that they chose the module of their own free will, the rest were forced to submit to circumstances. In the Saratov region in the 2014–15 academic year, the majority of students (13.2 thousand) chose “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture”, another almost 3 thousand people chose “Fundamentals of World Religious Cultures”, 2.2 thousand - “Fundamentals of Secular Ethics” , 284 students - “Fundamentals of Islamic Culture”, nine people decided to study Jewish culture, five people decided to study Buddhist culture.

Asya Safiullina

The Khvalynsk school underestimated the basics