Pridnestrovian teacher among winners of International Pushkin Contest

It was already the 14th  International Pushkin Contest

The Karagash secondary school teacher, Svetlana Pushkareva, is among 50 winners of the International Pushkin Contest for Russian Language Teachers. In September the Pridnistrovian teacher, alongside with the colleagues from both CIS and non-CIS countries, was in Moscow where she was awarded a laureate diploma. As reported by the Ministry of Education's press service, ahead of the Teachers' Day a meeting of teachers was organised in Tiraspol, where Svetlana Pushkareva spoke about her visit to the Russian capital.

It was already the 14th Pushkin Contest, which is held annually. It is organised by the newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Moscow's government under the auspices of Russia's MFA and the Russian World foundation.

This year the theme of the contest was "Pushkin. Internet. Marketplace. Who is the real teacher of Russian in my country?" Hundreds of teachers from 25 countries submitted their essays for the contest where they shared personal observations of people's attitude towards studying Russian. The teachers wondered if the contemporary "great and mighty" could digest virtual slang and uneducated language of marketplaces, if Pushkin could understand the Internet language, if living speech could benefit from numerous new-coined words.

According to Svetlana Pushkareva, the winners were invited to the award ceremony, which took place in the Moscow mayor’s office. The laureates came to the Russian capital at the expense of the contest organisers. The teachers were awarded diplomas and money rewards. They were also offered a rich cultural programme.

"I will never forget this visit: so festive and lovely was the meeting. The first thing many colleagues did in Moscow was going to bookshops in search of professional literature which is difficult to find at home," said the teacher.

It is not the first victory for Pridnestrovie at the Pushkin Contest. In 2013 Oksana Pronik, a Russian language and literature teacher at Bendery's Pushkin Gymnasium 2, was ranked among 50 winners at the 13th  International Pushkin Contest.

The next contest will be dedicated to the Great Victory, whose 70th anniversary will be marked in 2015.