“It’s a pity that we waste so much time on documents that have to be completely revised several times a year. It just means we have less time for students,” a history teacher with 32 years of experience was quoted as saying by the Infox.ru news site. “In recent years, the number of students has fallen – unlike the number of officials each demanding more and more papers. I’m suffocating.”

Fed up with the thriving bureaucracy, Russian teachers set their minds on changing the situation. A group of activists from the teaching community website Pedsovet.ru created a database of the strangest forms teachers have to fill in, inviting teachers from all over Russia to contribute.

The database includes such documents as "Agreement on the Use of a Laptop" and "Professional Self-analysis.” The first explains what a teacher can and cannot do with his work laptop, whereas the latter gives instruction on how to fill in the gaps of his “personal growth and self-fulfillment.”

The headmaster of the Tsaritsyno educational center, Efim Rachevsky, believes that such papers are not only pointless, but also humiliating.

“Why don’t they make us sign documents stipulating that we must not play cards or browse dating sites?” he said. “But in some cases it is easier to surrender. Once we had to fill in the form asking how many leaves our students gathered during a day of voluntary work.”