Mikhail Shelkov, creator of the Empathy Foundation, and Alexey Dyumin, governor of the Tula Region, signed a cooperation agreement. The agreement kickstarted a new regional contest for teachers in Tula, titled "Teaching as a Calling". The foundation will award three winners in each of the 11 categories with cash prizes.
Tula, June 18, 2021 – The creator of the Empathy Foundation, entrepreneur Mikhail Shelkov, and the Tula Region’s governor, Alexey Dyumin have signed a cooperation agreement. Its purpose is to support educational and development activities as well as the development of creative and intellectual abilities, and the professional competency of teachers in the Tula Region.
The agreement launched a new regional contest titled “Teaching as a Calling” for teachers in the region. The contest is organized by the Ministry of Education in the Tula Region, and the Empathy Charitable Foundation. The contest will be held from June to September 2021. The best teachers in 11 different categories will be named at the Festival of Science and Technology, which will be held in the creative industrial cluster of Oktava, as part of the Teacher’s Day celebrations.
“If we didn’t have worthy teachers, we wouldn’t have engineers or astronauts. In this case, businesses are obliged to participate and to do what they can in order to give teachers what they deserve. I expect that other regions will follow suit,” said Mikhail Shelkov.
The foundation will award three winners in each of the contest’s categories with cash prizes in the amount of a single payment of 100 000 rubles (1400 USD), or 20 000 rubles (275 USD) paid monthly during the course of a year.
In total, the foundation plans to allocate 8 million rubles (110 000 USD) to support the winners of the contest, including taxes. The Oktava Cluster will prepare separate prizes for the contest participants.