Today Russia marks Teachers’ Day. And with each year of the war, more and more former soldiers returning from the front are joining the ranks of Russian teachers. A lack of teaching qualifications or experience is no obstacle, and in some cases even veterans with criminal records are finding their way into schools.
After just a few months of retraining, war veterans can become teachers and gain the opportunity to work with children every day — teaching OBZR, technology, and physical education, and sometimes physics, history, and other subjects.
Such “teachers” are already working in schools in Perm and Khabarovsk regions, Bashkortostan, and the Amur, Moscow, Tambov, Chelyabinsk, Kirov, Omsk, Samara, and other regions.
In Orenburg, a former air-defense serviceman and law-enforcement officer underwent retraining and began teaching sixth graders OBZR and physics. In his lessons, he tells children about “modern-day heroes” and about “how ordinary boys grow up to become real defenders”:
“School isn’t just about knowledge. <...> A teacher helps children establish guiding principles in life, especially when parents simply don’t have enough time because of their heavy workload.”
In Rostov region, a former rifleman with the call sign “Bes” underwent retraining after returning from the war and now teaches technology to 15 classes. He describes his main task as “teaching children to be real men, to love their Motherland, and to be able to stand up for themselves and their loved ones.”
In Kaliningrad, a former marine who suffered a severe injury became the head of cadet classes and a history teacher. He also teaches students drill, tactical medicine, and weapons handling, while outside regular class hours children weave camouflage nets under his supervision.
“One day, the serviceman happened to hear that the school was looking for a mentor for its cadet classes — and immediately went for an interview,” — this is how the story of the marine’s employment at the school is described.
All of this is happening against the backdrop of a decline in the number of schoolteachers, including teachers with specialized university degrees in education. At the same time, the state is actively bringing war veterans into schools and turning their combat experience into a tool for the “patriotic education” of children.
