Kuzbass authorities seek to free teachers from paperwork overload

In Kuzbass, ideas will be considered on how to free teachers from unnecessary, unpaid clerical work. At a minimum, teachers will be relieved of filling out some documents, according to a decree published on Tuesday, 3 January, on the regional administration«s website.

Under a new federal program, all regions must establish working groups «to reduce the bureaucratic burden» on teachers. In Kuzbass, it is headed by Deputy Prime Minister Anton Pyatovsky and Education Minister Sofya Balakireva, and also includes representatives from other departments of the regional administration, school principals, and university vice-rectors.

In the coming months, participants will examine requests sent to educational institutions and eliminate duplicates. In addition, they aim to relieve teachers of some reporting and other paperwork that has been imposed on them illegally.

The decree does not specify any deadlines by which the group must help the region«s teachers. However, according to instructions from the federal center, by 2026 »mechanisms to reduce the bureaucratic burden« must be implemented in all Russian schools — not just in pilot regions.

Meanwhile, back in 2025, the country introduced a list of documents that teachers are allowed to fill out. These include the work program, progress and extracurricular activity journal, educational work plan, and student profiles.

Previously, teachers in their columns have repeatedly written that the collapse of the education system in the country occurred precisely due to the excessive workload on teachers.

«They, like barge haulers on the Volga, hopelessly pull the barge of Russian education, which has listed under numerous innovations. They have no time for creativity or individual work with students,» noted a Kemerovo tutor who had to leave school.

The same was said by another Kemerovo teacher who quit school and became a courier.