Millions of people around the world aspire to become a teacher, which has been held as one of the most important and prestigious professions for generations. But recently, teachers in Russia were somewhat humiliated by a certain incident. The Teacher of the Year contestants in the European nation were made to rub a phallic crystal trophy, which was actually a crystal pelican during a ceremony in a clip that has gone viral online.
The Teacher of the Year event on the energy-rich Sakhalin island raised the eyebrows of the people around the world for the unusually-shaped crystal prize. The event that is sponsored by leading oil companies, has a tradition that the contenders will touch the annual trophy before the winner gets announced. Bit this year due to the unusual shape of the trophy it became awkward.
Teachers Had to 'Touch' the Trophy
Few of the women were shocked as they were required to touch the prize, while one male contestant did not touch the object but put his hands on the wings. Sergey Minaev, the RTV host and the former of the Russian edition of Esquire, posted a clip on YouTube joking that the ceremony resembled a 'Divorce of the Year' contest or 'some regional PornHub awards for their best models, as reported by the Daily Mail. In fact, no, this is just a Teacher of the Year competition on Sakhalin island," he wrote.
The local news organization ASTV called the clip 'awkward' and the organizers also later admitted that the trophy had a 'strange and 'ambiguous' shape. The winner of the contest was history and social studies teacher Irina Saraikina, who besides winning the crystal pelican also won a full expense paid trip to London for studying English. The sponsors of the contest include Russian state oil company Rosneft, Indian operator ONGC Videsh, Exxon Neftgas Limited, which is a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corporation, and Japanese consortium Sodeco.
