Scandal in the Ministry of Education: a map of Ukraine without Crimea was found in a 7th grade textbook
9 September 2024 15:25
A school textbook on the Ukrainian language for 7th graders contains a map of Ukraine without Crimea and the occupied territories of Donbas. This was pointed out by Tatyana Gonchenko, a columnist for the telegram channel “Nepozbuvnyi knyhochitun” (Unbreakable Book Reader ), "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
The map without the Crimean peninsula was found in a 7th grade Ukrainian language textbook by Anastasia Onatiy and Taras Tkachuk, recommended by the Ministry of Education and published in 2024 at the expense of public funds.
“Guess where this map of Ukraine without Crimea came from? It’s in a school textbook on the Ukrainian language for the 7th grade (authored by Onatiy A. V., Tkachuk T. P.). It is printed right next to the text of the Ukrainian anthem. You can see it here in the electronic version on the website of the Institute for the Modernisation of Education Content,” Gonchenko said.
She added that the textbooks were published in 2024. They are recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. The paper version of this textbook has the same mistakes.
The co-author of the textbook, Anastasia Onatii, has already responded to the mistake on social media, noting that it was due to a technical error by the layout designers.
“Our oversight. Crimea is ours. I’ll start with the main thing: we sincerely admit our oversight, the icon in the shape of Ukraine without Crimea got into the book due to an unfortunate inattention. We didn’t check it, we didn’t look after it – we can call it different things, but the fact remains that we unknowingly hurt people and we apologise for that. Crimea is ours, Ukrainian – this is an indisputable statement, and we are saying it clearly again and are ready to do it again and again. We care about your opinion, we care about the unity of society,” explained Onatiy.
In turn, the layout designers claimed a technical error.
According to them, two sets of images were purchased from stock images for the page design.
During the work, the designer “unfortunately did not notice that the object was not on the top layer”.
“The map is not solid: it consists of 2 contours. The outline of the Crimean peninsula was placed when copying and moving to a layer below the white circle. And the other outline is located on the layer above the white circle. The designer focused his attention on the outlines so that there were no unnecessary ones. And unfortunately, he didn’t notice that the object was not on the top layer,” the layout designers explain.
The co-author of the textbook suggested launching a flash mob to draw Crimea in textbooks.
“We propose to launch a flash mob called ‘Draw Crimea’. Fellow educators, please take 10-15 minutes in class to discuss this mistake with your students and draw the icon in the textbook on page 3. Please support us – it will be a good opportunity to talk about Crimea and its Ukrainianness. And also, of course, about information traps and the importance of recognising our own mistakes,” Onatiy suggested.
This idea was criticised by Ukrainians who left angry comments under the textbook co-author’s post.
“I don’t know about ‘your story’, but you have to be super indifferent to your work to make such a mistake. At all levels… more than one person checked it, and no one noticed it, or if they did, they didn’t react accordingly. How can we then demand anything from foreigners, if even the co-authors are indifferent to such things on the scale of textbooks for children (not a book, but textbooks!!!) and advise us to “do a flash mob”. Can we please make a flash mob to “do our job well”? How should a child feel about this if they are given such an example at the very beginning? But no, this is all a betrayal. It’s just super disrespectful to society and, above all, to yourself as a specialist, because it’s a complete shit.”
“It is a crime to make such mistakes during the war”
“There are 13,000 schools in Ukraine, please tell me how you plan to inform every teacher about this so-called ‘flash mob’? What responsibility will the person who made this mistake bear? (As a taxpayer, I believe I have the right to know)
We would like to remind you that the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Oksen Lisovyi recently announced that the Ministry of Education and Science had approved the Conceptual Framework for Reforming History Education in the General Secondary Education System. In the comments to this post, Ukrainians called Lisovyi the worst minister, an enemy of Ukraine, and “worse than Tabachnyk”,
It is worth noting that the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine may get a new head in the near future. Kommersant Ukrainian has learned from its own sources that the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, Oksen Lisovyi, may soon be dismissed.
