New scandal with textbooks: instead of Ukrainian defenders, Russian occupiers are depicted
10 September 2024 03:46
A book scandal has broken out in Ukraine. Tenth-graders at a Kyiv school were given a textbook that depicted Russian occupiers instead of Ukrainian defenders. This is reported by Channel 5, "Komersant Ukrainian" informs
Tatiana, the mother of tenth-grader Alexander, said that her son received textbooks for the new school year a few days ago. One of them was intended for the study of the subject “Defence of the Fatherland”. While flipping through the textbook, Oleksandr and his friend came across an image that shocked them.
“They were flipping through it and came across this picture of the Russian military. At first glance, it may seem like camouflage. But we already know very well what Russian camouflage is and what Ukrainian camouflage is. And the tenth-grade boys immediately paid attention to it,” said Oleksandr’s mother.
The image used in the textbook is easy to find online. The original photo directs to Russian websites, which mainly tell about enemy equipment such as Ratniks and AK rifles. A member of the Ukrainian Armed Forces who is currently in the hot Donetsk sector explained in detail why this image is inappropriate for Ukrainian textbooks.
“In that photo, literally everything points to the fact that this is an enemy weapon. Firstly, the assault vest is 6-B 43. Both are wearing 6B47 helmets. These are all elements of the Ratnik kit. Also an assault rifle, if I’m not mistaken, AK 107. We didn’t have such weapons before. Now we have collected a lot of dead Ratniks. But this is an exclusively Katsap army assault rifle,” explained Oleksiy “Godzilla” Godzenko, a soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The school says there are no other books. The school’s director, Vasyl Antoniuk, said that they issue the textbooks they receive from the Ministry of Education.
“The principal distributes what the Ministry of Education gives him,” Antoniuk said.
When asked by the journalist whether the uniform was similar to the Russian one, the director replied that he was not an expert in military affairs.
The story of this textbook is not new. In 2020, Channel 5 already talked about the enemy formation in the textbook. At that time, its authors, Aston Publishing House, said that they used the photo to illustrate the military of the Ukrainian Armed Forces because it did not bear the insignia of any army in the world. This position was supported by the publishers. The Ministry of Education promised to bring those responsible for poor quality content to justice. But the situation has not changed in four years.
Responsibility for the photo gaffe is being shifted between the Institute for the Modernisation of Educational Content and the publishing house. According to Inna Sovsun, MP and co-author of the Defence of Ukraine curriculum, the institute is unable to adequately control the quality of textbooks and should be closed.
The Ministry of Education insists that the gaffe with the photo is not the fault of the Institute for Modernisation of Education Content, which approves textbooks, but of the publishing house that printed the books. After all, the commission that approves a book for a student is only responsible for the quality of the text, not the illustrations. After the scandal in 2020, the publishing house simply published new textbooks. According to the Ministry of Education and Science, the ones with hostile uniforms should have been disposed of last year.
The school noted that there was nothing to replace the textbooks. In August, the Ministry of Education approved a new Defence of Ukraine programme for high school students, which will teach them first aid, shooting and flying drones. Therefore, textbooks are not currently the main teaching tool, but the problem with their content remains open.
It is worth noting that the 7th grade Ukrainian language textbook contains a map of Ukraine without Crimea and the occupied territories of Donbas.
The co-author of the textbook, Anastasia Onatiy, suggested launching a flash mob to add Crimea to the textbooks.
