Thursday
02 september 2010
20:07
Education Minister Tabachnyk out to censor Ukrainian history
There is no Ukrainian history program on education ministry’s site. Instead, we can see only a blank space where the program should be. And there are no ministry’s regulations obliging authors to rewrite history textbooks, says historian Volodymyr Vyatrovych in his article “Back to USSR, or the art of editing out history textbooks.”History textbooks are updated periodically, the scholar says, and this is a rather lengthy procedure. It typically begins with the discussions by scholars and teachers, the results of which are implemented by education ministry officials.
This was the case with the latest changes to the 2009 history school program. Following a wide discussion by almost 300 scholars, the draft changes were exposed to a 2 month-long public discussion prior to implementation by the ministry.
This year, education minister Dmytro Tabachnyk simply ordered changes to history textbooks – without any discussion by scholars, teachers and public. There is even no appropriate order signed by Tabachnyk.
The minister just lifted the receiver and gave marching orders, Vyatrovych explained.
As a result of Tabachnyk-styled adaptation, important events, figures, periods of the Ukrainian history have been erased. All despite Tabachnyk’s earlier assurances that he would propose his new approaches to the Ukrainian history to a public discussion.
“Such actions by minister Tabachnyk have but one name – blatant censorship,” the historian concluded.
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