Chelyabinsk readers: Extend kindergarten hours? Let proposer stay until 8 p.m.

In Chelyabinsk, a heated discussion continues over the idea of extending kindergarten hours until 8 p.m. President Vladimir Putin voiced such a proposal earlier this week at a meeting with the government, and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko has already promised to work out the issue with regional governors.

Meanwhile, kindergarten staff are strongly against changes to the schedule, telling 74.RU that there is already a shortage of teachers and that salaries are meager.

«I believe a salary of 30,000 rubles (about $330 at current rates) should not exist; it»s beggarly and shameful,« readers write in the comments to our publication. »In fact, a person is working for free.«

«Whoever suggested it, let them stay until 8 p.m. themselves,» a site visitor agrees.

Some parents argue that there are enough teachers to work in shifts and ask: «So what if your shift is half a day? Parents are at work all day!»

«That»s if there is a second teacher in the group,« the educators counter. »When there isn«t, we work 12-hour shifts or at least until the last child, which doesn»t reduce the workload much. And that work is paid at one-and-a-half times the rate, not double. What a «cushy deal».«

Many Chelyabinsk residents claim that keeping a child even until 7 p.m. is a problem, and that the so-called «last child» in the group is waited for without any enthusiasm.

«They greet you with an unhappy face, they don»t want to work,« they write.

«Parents should adjust to their children, you decided to have them — so figure out how you»ll pick them up from kindergarten. Change your job while the child is small. They are yours, and they need you!« one of our readers urges parents.

Many teachers complain that they already perform the most important parental functions:

«Children are sent to nursery when they»re not yet potty-trained; the teachers wash them, train them, and teach them to eat,« one of them says. »It«s convenient for parents, they don»t have to put in the effort.«

«If they paid decent child care benefits, parents wouldn»t be in a hurry to return to work and would teach their children everything themselves,« a young mother objects.

«If they extend the hours, they should introduce a rule requiring a certificate from the workplace about the company»s schedule,« one commenter suggests. »So that mommies aren«t just hanging out at the gym or hairdresser. It»s the height of injustice to make teachers work for pennies when a mother should be with her own child.«

«They are planning to extend kindergarten hours so that mommies don»t get tired and give birth more,« another notes.

«The authorities dream that women will give birth conveyor-style without leaving work, while their children are being raised with »conversations about the important things«. Dreams, dreams,» a third comments sarcastically.

«Maybe they should oblige employers to let workers with children in kindergarten leave an hour earlier without consequences,» some of our readers ponder. «If it»s legally required, they«ll have to comply. Or just shorten the workday altogether.»

«You don»t understand the plan. First they need to prepare the system, and then they«ll tell you that the 40-hour work week under the Labor Code has become 45 hours,» Radmir says with irony.