The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has begun to change the procedure for creating textbooks to improve their quality and identify deficiencies before printing. This was reported by Komersant ukrainskyi
with reference to the Ministry of Education and Science.
As a reminder, a map of Ukraine without Crimea was found in the 7th grade Ukrainian language textbooks by Anastasia Onatiy and Taras Tkachuk. The map of Ukraine without the peninsula was drawn next to the words of the national anthem.
“This page did not undergo an expert review, but appeared at the printing stage. After all, an electronic version (copy, analogue) of the original manuscript or the original textbook layout, which may not contain the design pages, is submitted for examination,” the agency said.
Litera LTD will reprint the textbooks at its own expense, and the erroneous copies will be withdrawn from all schools.
“Almost UAH 5.3 million was allocated for printing. Since the publishing house has undertaken to reprint the textbooks at its own expense, the state will not incur additional costs,” the Ministry of Education said.
The electronic library of the Institute for the Modernisation of Educational Content (IMCI) also published a textbook with a corrected map icon of Ukraine – Ukrainian Crimea.
The Ministry of Education and Science assured that they are working on rebooting the textbook creation system.
“Starting from 2 September 2024, the Ukrainian Institute for Educational Development (UIED) will provide expertise. The new mechanism for ensuring the quality of educational literature will include examination of materials before testing, their actual testing in a small number of educational institutions with subsequent feedback and improvement, as well as the final examination before the competitive (teacher) selection of textbooks by educational institutions. The expertise will be carried out by new expert commissions of the UIRO. The selection of experts is currently underway,” the agency said.
They added that textbooks printed under the updated procedure will be available in schools in the next academic year.