More than 800 educational institutions have decided to join the renewal of the subject “Defense of Ukraine” - MES

So far, more than 800 educational institutions, including schools, vocational education institutions, and professional higher education institutions, have decided to join the renewal of the subject "Defense of Ukraine." You can join this experiment during the school year. This was reported by Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Andriy Stashkiv to UNN.

We are implementing innovations in the subject "Defense of Ukraine" through an experiment. As part of the experiment, individual schools will work with the new program. That is, it is not the regions that are involved first, but individual schools. The only thing is that the involvement of these schools is organized at the regional level; we cannot communicate directly with each school, so we receive letters from the regions stating that there are schools in the region that are ready to join this experiment

According to him, a network of future centers is still being formed, where the subject "Defense of Ukraine" will be taught.

"I know that work is being done in Kyiv, but we have not yet received information from them about which centers will be doing this, and specifically in which schools," Stashkiv said.

He also noted that participation in this experiment is voluntary.

The full launch in all schools across the country is scheduled for 2027.

There are regions and schools in the regions that have expressed a desire to participate in this experiment, to implement a new program, and accordingly, we receive letters from them. At the moment, we have more than 800 schools, and these are not only schools, but also vocational and technical education institutions, professional higher education institutions where it is planned to create these centers, where the processes of creating these centers have already begun, where educational spaces will be equipped accordingly. But this number will increase. You can join the experiment during the academic year, not necessarily before September 1, and approximately 1,200 centers are planned to be created this academic year, and the further, the more

Recall

Ukraine has developed a draft model curriculum "Defense of Ukraine" for grades 10-11 of general secondary education institutions. The project was developed taking into account the experience and recommendations of leading defense experts, NGOs, and educators.

Add

On August 19, Alina Mikhailova, a member of the Kyiv City Council and a military servicewoman, accused the KCSA Department of Education and Science and its director, Olena Fidanyan, of allegedly sabotaging military training for schoolchildren and refusing to update the school subject "Defense of Ukraine.

"The Kyiv Department of Education is the only one who refused to join this. That is, it deliberately refuses to implement the new program in Kyiv and train teachers. It turns out that everywhere, even in the Donetsk region, schools that have created centers will teach the Defense of Ukraine in a new way, but not in Kyiv," wrote Mykhailova on Facebook

The KCSA statedthat as of August 20 this year, no official document was received by the KCSA Department of Education and Science regarding the All-Ukrainian Pedagogical Experiment under the new "Defense of Ukraine" program. Accordingly, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine did not invite Kyiv to the All-Ukrainian Pedagogical Experiment in this subject.

However, as Andriy Stashkiv told UNN , the Ministry of Education and Science does not have to send a personal invitation to join the All-Ukrainian pedagogical experiment on the subject "Defense of Ukraine".

On July 1, 2024, the Ministry of Education approved the order and sent it to the regional departments of education, as well as the Kyiv department, and the regions must volunteer and write to the Ministry of Education.

At the same time, the KCSA Department of Education and Science emphasized that the capital has allocated and distributed a subvention of UAH 143.1 million to implement the "Protection of Ukraine" program, including UAH 41.2 million from the city budget, which is the maximum amount among all regions of the country. Additionally, in preparation for the new 2024/2025 school year, the capital has allocated UAH 23.7 million to equip "Protection of Ukraine" classrooms with modern equipment.

The KCSA also noted that the adaptation of the current curriculum in this subject to the challenges of wartime began in Kyiv last year. Thus, at the end of 2023, a working group consisting of specialists from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, teachers, methodologists from the Institute of Postgraduate Education of Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University developed Methodological Recommendations for teaching "Defense of Ukraine" in Kyiv's general secondary education institutions under martial law starting in 2024