Penza, 11 October 2011. PenzaNews. Average monthly salary of teachers of the Penza region increased up to 16 056 rubles in September, 2011. The Minister of Education of the Penza region Svetlana Kopeshkina informed about it during the press conference on Tuesday, October, 11th.

The minister said: "Average salary of the Penza region in the first quarter of 2011 is 14 604 roubles. In education sphere we should have such salary in the fourth quarter, however we have already exceeded it".

According to her, in September every second teacher in the region got more than 15 thousand rubles a month and almost every fifth teacher had more than 20 thousand rubles a month.

Svetlana Kopeshkina said: "Since October, 1st the base salary of the teacher increased from 3 653 rubles up to 3 890 roubles".

She also has added that now the salary doesn't depend on their age or experience of work, it depends on their activity and their desire to develop themselves, to study and to teach children eagerly and to give them not only theory but try to make the students use their knowledge.

The Minister of Education of the region said:"Teachers should get payments not for neat register books (it is their duty) but for the account of individual achievements of each child".

She said: "I also think that one of the most important achievements is Penza project "Business Training since School Years" which was borrowed from Swedes".

In the Penza region more than 537 million roubles were allocated for education sphere development in 2011. 213 million roubles were allocated from federal and 324 million roubles from regional budgets.