A single story or a betrayal of the past: another innovation of the Ministry of Education and Culture, which divided the public

Recently, the Ministry of Science and Education of Ukraine once again shook the educational community. This time, the reason for the stormy discussions was the approval of the conceptual foundations of the reform of history education at school. The essence of this reform is to create a single general education course that would combine world history and the history of Ukraine. According to the experts of the Ministry, this initiative is aimed at improving the quality of historical education, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of historical processes and events, and developing critical thinking among students. Reformers consider the history of Ukraine as an integral part of European and world history in general.

Why did the combination of two stories cause such a violent reaction in society and what can we expect from such a reform? Let’s try to understand the situation.

What changes are expected in the history course

Instead of two courses “History of Ukraine” and “World History”, it is proposed to introduce a single course with the working title “History: Ukraine and the World”. The study of the subject will take place within six cycles:

• the first cycle of primary education (for grades 1-2): studying general information about a person, family, community, native region, Ukraine as a state;
• the second cycle of primary education (for grades 3-4): study of the most important stories from the history of Ukraine and about Ukraine in the world;
• the first cycle of basic secondary education (for grades 5-6): a preparatory stage for studying a systematic history course and mastering significant plots of the history of Ukraine and the world from ancient times to the present day (2 hours per week);
• the second cycle of basic secondary education (for grades 7-9): study of the main events in the history of Ukraine and the world, according to historical and cultural periods (3 hours each in grades 7-8 and 4 hours in grade 9);
• the first cycle of specialized secondary education (grade 10, specialized and adaptive) and the second cycle of specialized secondary education (grades 11–12, specialized): studying the history of Ukraine and the world through the main phenomena and processes from ancient times to the present (3 hours per week for non-historical profiles and 6 hours each – for grades 11–12 of the historical profile).

With regard to specialized secondary education, the MES plans to introduce special history courses:

• historical geography;
• local / regional history;
• intellectual history;
• cultural history;
• history of ethnic and/or religious communities;
• history and experience of survival / opposition to totalitarian regimes, empires during wars, etc.

Another novelty in the study of history in schools will be the mastery of civics subjects directly through historical material

Society’s reaction to the innovations of the Ministry of Education and Culture

Educators and parents reacted very negatively to such innovations and even prepared a letter – an appeal to the Ministry of Education and Culture with the following content:

“We, scientists, historians, methodologists, teachers, parents, pupils and students, representatives of the public and concerned citizens of Ukraine, supporting in general the processes of renewal of the Ukrainian education system, advocate the preservation of independent school subjects, in particular the history of Ukraine, the Ukrainian language and literature, which are fundamental for the formation of identity”

On its own page on Facebook, the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, Oksen Lisovyi, explains the goal of reforming history education as an aspiration to form a “Ukrainian-centric history course”. But what kind of Ukrainian centrism are we talking about when the history of Ukraine will simply be lost among the histories of other countries?

Vadim Ursul, Facebook user:

“Saboteurs from education, the goal is to blur the history of Ukraine in the limitless content of world history, to prevent the education of conscious self-sufficient citizens, to undermine the foundation of historical science in Ukraine. Shame Oksen Lisovy Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. I hope that the ideologues of this disgrace will finish like a tobacconist – I will flee from Ukraine”.

According to the Minister of Education, the road map for the reform of historical education will be developed by “expert community“. But, as experience shows, the Ministry has repeatedly made decisions on reforming educational processes without involving their participants directly in a broad discussion. As the people say “they married me without asking”.

Volodymyr Marchuk, Facebook user:

“And why won’t the ministry announce the names of the “leading historians”?

And who counted them among the “leading ones”, the ministry?”

The staff of the Tynnene Lyceum:

“This is the absorption of the history of Ukraine by the world and the replacement of concepts. Since this year they mixed up the meatballs with the flies at the final exam, questions from the world were thrust into the history of Ukraine. Please put the history of Ukraine in its place, because after you it will still go its own way.”

Maryana Borysenko, Facebook user:

“The next blah-blah-blah from the ministry. The document is “framework”. That is, it is simply declarative. And what the leading methodologists say, the Ministry of Education and Culture does not seem to hear. 1 hour in the 5th class on history, is it about the DNA of the nation? The history of Ukraine was reduced to the basics of health. Model programs on history do not meet today’s challenges at all. How can a child master it in 5th grade within one hour a week??? What can children of 10 years expect? Before that, changes to standard curricula were discussed before, where there was not even a hint that history education would be reformed. This should be reflected in the number of hours allocated to study and in the name of the course. According to your logic, in 5 years you will implement new standard curricula, where history education is not reformed, and in the next 5 years you will reform history education.”

Vasyl Barvinok, Facebook user:

“So how will the material be structured? By historical periods? And in each period – what happened in Ukraine and in the world in general? Will it not turn out that this will actually be a world story in which Ukraine will be only one of hundreds of countries?”

Andriy Vorobets, Facebook user:

“To harmonize the material from Ukrainian and world history so that students can understand the role of Ukraine in the world” Due to the small number of hours given to study the history of Ukraine in school (not to mention the world history), NMT, which logically begins with the Commonwealth of Nations, is extremely difficult for students to understand the role of Ukraine for the Ukrainians themselves and the persistence of its state-building traditions on our territory, to say nothing of the world. We cannot explain to ourselves in didactics – who we are and what we want (good evening, Mr. Hrushevskyi). Everything depends on the skill of the history teacher and his motivation.”

Emilia Kupets, Facebook user:

“The Ukrainian language, history and culture in general are the foundation of the nation. What do you do instead? You are undermining this foundation. Do everything you can to make the Ukrainian nation unconscious, especially the future generation. You don’t need conscious and independent, do you?”

Anna Shokalo, Facebook user:

“I studied everything separately. I have clear ideas and cause-and-effect relationships. Modern children will study the historical “vinaigrette” – it is easier to fool the stupid.”

Having read the comments on Facebook, you can come to the conclusion that such a reform should be brought up for general discussion and even debate and voting.  And not to quietly create such serious changes with some “expert community”. Because there are many opinions and it is worth listening to them.

By the way, as with any controversial issue, these innovations have supporters.

Ulyana Martyniv, Facebook user:

“History as an educational subject should be taught comprehensively: the history of Ukraine in the context of world history. Pupils should know not just historical events, but understand comprehensively: what events (political, economic, scientific inventions, etc.) in a certain country in a certain period of time in what way influenced historical events in other countries, and in particular in Ukraine, and vice versa. Then knowledge of the history of either Ukraine or the world will not be purely formal, but will give students a comprehensive understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships of historical events.

Ihor Solomakha, Facebook user:

“I have been teaching the history of Ukraine in the context of the world for more than twenty years. And it is not possible to understand historical processes in another way. And the ministry just now decided to catch up with me”.

Tatyana Ostapchuk, Facebook user:

“And why is it bad if the history of Ukraine in different periods will be covered together with world history? The participation of the state in international relations, connections and development will become clear. And in general, the textbook will be called “History of Ukraine and the World”.

Natalia Hornatenko, Facebook user:

“The right decision. Seeing history as a scheme (Ukraine against the background of the world) makes it possible to correctly understand interdependent historical processes.”

But Pavlo Shvets, a Facebook user, drew attention to the similarity of this reform with Polish education:

“First combine history, then algebra with geometry, then Ukrainian and foreign literature and include it in the language subject. Are you targeting the Polish education system? You are stupid! This system produces ignorant people, I can see with my own eyes.”

How history is taught abroad, in the countries with which we seek to integrate and whose experience we adopt

The Polish education system manages to combine dogmatism with liberalism. The basic level of history in the school curriculum is studied in a course called “History and Society”, where Polish schoolchildren study state symbols. Then the students get to know Poland’s place in the world and learn about more local facts. Thus, Polish students become aware of themselves as a part of European society and only then gradually begin to study the history of, for example, their hometown.

Germans believe that the present can only be understood by studying the past. Therefore, they study history in order to understand the structure of the world, to review the patterns of development of events, to get to know the personalities who influenced the course of historical events in the world. The history program is presented in a classic way: the eras are studied in chronological order, starting from the Paleolithic and ending with the unification of Germany and the accession to the EU. And in parallel, German students study the history of their native land, but focusing more on local history material. In high school, students stop studying facts and learn to analyze and discuss, while simultaneously repeating the studied material.

A distinctive feature of history education in Great Britain is the presentation of the subject by topic rather than by country. The British study history as a whole system, without division into nations. In the younger classes, much attention is paid to the history of the native region and one’s family. In middle and high school, there is a strong focus on each region, not just English history. But British students study world history in modules. What’s more, schoolchildren themselves choose the topics they are interested in. Thus, British teachers noted that students are most often interested in the history of the American West before 1800 and Nazism in Germany. While the modules on ancient times became the least popular.

In the United States, there is no uniform curriculum for teaching history. Each state sets its own standards. However, there are general topics, such as the history of the country’s founding, the Civil War, human rights, and the participation of the United States in world wars, which must be studied by all states.

If we recall how we studied history within the framework of the USSR, we will come to the conclusion that the emphasis was on the “reunification” of Ukrainian lands with Russia. The history of Ukraine was considered as part of the general history of the Soviet people. Many historical events were presented in a distorted form. Ukrainian culture, language, and the identity of the people were viewed through the prism of “fraternal nations”, where Ukrainians’ own uniqueness was suppressed. The view of events and actions of actors that did not fit into the Soviet narrative were removed from textbooks, or remembered in a negative, distorted form.

Only after Ukraine gained independence, a separate course “History of Ukraine” appeared, where significant attention was paid to each important stage. But the textbooks were overloaded with material. For example, for 5th grade students, the material was presented in the form of a huge lecture with a large number of dates and names of figures, which was difficult for 10-year-old children to understand. The material had to be perceived in its finished form without the possibility of analyzing cause-and-effect relationships with the subsequent reproduction of what was read in class. Later, when testing their knowledge of history at the final exam, students faced problems identifying the person in the picture, whether it was the continuation of a sentence said by one or another figure.

It is obvious that innovations should be made, but with the aim of improvement, not deterioration. And it is unlikely that only a handful of people can decide how best to present the material. Surely, such a question is important to discuss and take into account the different points of view of all participants in the educational process, taking into account people’s experience and their view of the situation.

History is a multifaceted science, and it is important that no key moment is overlooked. And this requires a careful selection of materials and the involvement of experts from various fields in order to create a balanced course, where topics important for building a realistic picture of the history of Ukraine would not be replaced or undermined.

The famous Ukrainian poet Maksym Rylskyi said:

“He who does not remember the past has no future.”  

It is important to know the history of one’s own country in order to understand the path the country took to its formation, what price it had to pay, what gains were made in the development of the country’s culture, lifestyle, political and economic life. To know so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past and not to give an opportunity to destroy the future.

Speaking about the code of our identity, at the same time Minister Oksen Lisovyi calls to perceive Ukraine as one of the hundreds of countries in the world. And won’t such a relationship become a repetition of the events of the past, when we were told about the “friendship of peoples”, at the same time suppressing our identity and relegating us to the backyard of history? We, like many other peoples, have our own history, filled with a large number of events and achievements, our leaders left a noticeable mark in this history and it is important to do everything possible so that descendants learn about it. And this process should not take place somewhere in the background of others, but in a full-fledged course with due attention paid to all important historical milestones.

Probably, attention should be paid to the format of history textbooks, so that they correspond to modern teaching methods, and are not scientific volumes that are too difficult for children to understand.

Currently, the MES has set itself a difficult task. Any changes are always perceived with difficulty and with a lot of criticism. But it is worth taking into account all points of view, subjecting them to analysis and singling out the most useful for the implementation of the reform. After all, the reform should not aim at destruction, but at the improvement of the historical education of our state and the formation of a true and integral foundation of the nation.