The school subject "History of Ukraine" will benefit from merging with "World History" because combining these two subjects still puts "History of Ukraine" at the center. This was stated by Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovyi to journalists, according to a correspondent of UNN.
There are very different opinions on this matter, and today we have a huge amount of expertise from historians, teachers of "History of Ukraine" and "World History," who believe that it is necessary to combine them. In fact, "History of Ukraine" benefits from this, because when we combine these two subjects, we still put "History of Ukraine" at the core. We just add the context of world history and show the influences and mutual influences of events that took place in Ukraine on world historical events and vice versa. The context of world history in general, how they influenced and what place Ukraine had in these events,
He assured us that there is a strong enough expertise from a number of historians who insist that this is exactly what should be done.
He also noted that now there will be no one textbook for two subjects.
Some institutions are already combining this, already have the ability to combine it, and are working with it. This is not a rigid norm that we are introducing on September 1 and demanding from everyone,
Context
Lisovyi signed the order of the Ministry of Education and Science of July 30, 2024, No. 1072 on the approval of the conceptual framework for reforming historical education in the general secondary education system. In particular, it refers to the merger of school courses in Ukrainian history and world history.
The order states that the benefits of a single general education history course for students will be expanded opportunities:
- recognize oneself in the community (from the community to the world);
- nurture their national and cultural identity (in particular, through comparison and contrast);
- to know and understand oneself, one's surroundings, one's native land and the world;
- to realize the diversity and unity, interdependence of the world, to form a sense of ownership and responsibility;
- to more fully imagine real situations and see the information field that you will face in life;
- realize the connection between the past, present and future;
- to see historical knowledge as a completely practical need;
- to form the conceptual apparatus necessary for the systematic study and understanding of history.
However, the scientific and pedagogical community, representatives of the public expressed concern about the merger of the subjects "History of Ukraine" and "World History" into one.
They believe that the idea of integrating the course "History of Ukraine" with the course "World History," which is presented as a promising educational innovation based on the experience of the leading countries of Europe and North America, is deeply harmful and inherently destroys the national model of education and undermines Ukraine's statehood from within.
"The merger of 'History of Ukraine' with 'World History' will have a profoundly negative impact on the minds of children and adolescents, since at school age they are not yet fully formed as individuals and cannot properly analyze and draw historical parallels in the world. A huge amount of information, often manipulatively selected according to liberal, cosmopolitan and leftist (social-communist) concepts, will create chaos, in which the history of Ukraine will appear exclusively as an addition to the history of neighboring states, an instrument of their policies. This threat becomes even more tangible in the context of the constant reduction of teaching hours for humanities subjects in both schools and universities. It may be more appropriate to consider such a course within the framework of university education, when the Ukrainian national foundation of the individual and the ability to evaluate and analyze various socio-political processes have already been laid," they said in their appeal to Minister of Education and Science Lisovyi.