It has been a long time since Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Kindergarten Cop” and Eddie Murphy’s “Daddy Day Care” hit the big screens but in Russia and Tatarstan the story remains the same – kindergarten teacher jobs are only taken by women. Every case of a male teacher has been treated with special attention making every case equal to a case of eye spotting a white whale. Tatarstan’s only male kindergarten teacher lives and works in Yelabuga.
Sergei Tugolukov graduated the Yelabuga Pedagogical University in 2001 and after failing to get a foreign languages teaching position he took the option of resuming his pedagogical career in the city’s kindergarten No.18. In a short time he has become involved with local workshops for other kindergarten teachers and earned respect among his female colleagues as a professional. He is probably the only male kindergarten teacher in Russia. This is traditionally amongst the lowest-paid jobs in the teaching sector within Russia.

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