Elena Lenskaya presentation

Teachers in Russia are often praised for their commitment and hard work in what is a highly unfavourable context. Their salaries are well below average, the workload is often enormous and yet they manage not only to keep teaching  but also  take extra duties and participate in all sorts of innovative activities. However, hardly anything has been done recently to rectify  their    situation.  Recent demographic  trends have made them even more vulnerable and many of them have been made redundant and left schools. But as the population starts  increasing there will be a need for  a better trained and committed cadre  of teachers .  The presentation will look at key issues of pre-service and in-service teacher training in Russia, the issues of  qualified staff retention and teachers’ careers and how the latter can  be addressed through better training opportunities.  Innovations in teacher training introduced by the British Council, OSI and World Bank will be discussed and success factors will be offered for a panel discussion.