
According to pro-Kremlin propaganda, Ukraine's education policies are a continuation of those imposed by the Nazis in the territories they occupied.
NEWS: Back in 1940, Heinrich Himmler described the main educational targets for the children in the occupied territories: "For the non-German population of the eastern regions... it is sufficient to have a public school with four grades. The educational targets in this type of school must be basic arithmetic, calculations to maximum 500, the ability to sign their name and to believe in the idea that the divine command consists in obeying the Germans".
In 1942, the Nazi occupation regime established the educational programs for the occupied territories. There were only 7 school subjects left in the curriculum: mother tongue, German language, arithmetic, geography, natural sciences, labour and physical education [...]
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the German educational project, is planning the following innovations to be implemented as of 2027: 8 subjects will be removed from the compulsory education curricula: foreign literature, universal history, geography, civic education, biology/ecology, physics and chemistry; a system of individualized choice of subjects will be introduced; the compulsory curriculum will only include the study of Ukrainian language, Ukrainian literature, a foreign language, history of Ukraine, mathematics, physical education and military training.
[…] the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, Oksan Lisovyi, went even further than his colleague, the Minister of Science and Popular Education of the Third Reich?
NARRATIVES: 1. As of 2027, fewer and fewer subjects will be studied in schools in Ukraine; 2. The Ministry of Education in Kyiv continues the policy of the Nazi occupation regime during the Second World War.
PURPOSE: To manipulate the public opinion by drawing a false comparison between educational reforms in Ukraine and the policies implemented by Nazi Germany; to justify Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: It is not true that fewer subjects will be studied in the Ukrainian schools starting 2027. There will be some changes, but only at the high school level. According to an explanation by the Ministry of Education and Science in Kyiv, Ukraine is abandoning the outdated system of organizing secondary education and will allow students to choose between several specialized high schools, giving them the opportunity to opt for particular subjects as well.
It’s actually a European model of education that Ukraine is adopting, abandoning the old system of general secondary schools that did not provide any specialization. Three thematic clusters will be established: language and literature, exact sciences and the socio-humanitarian specialization. Classes will vary depending on specialization in the 11th and 12th grades. The number of optional subjects and courses will gradually increase until the 12th grade, and the number of compulsory subjects will decrease.
The Ukrainian education reform has nothing to do with the policies of the Nazi occupation regime or the standards of the Third Reich. Moreover, totalitarian ideology and symbolism are banned in Ukraine, and in textbooks the Nazi and Communist regimes are accused of starting the Second World War. Those regimes were also condemned at legislative level.
In addition, Russian propaganda recalls the state of Ukrainian education during the Nazi occupation, while at the moment only part of the territory of Ukraine is under occupation, namely some districts in the southeastern regions of the country and the Crimean Peninsula. Under occupation are not the territories controlled by Kyiv, but those conquered by Moscow's troops.
In the Ukrainian schools occupied by the Russian army, children were forced to take an oath of allegiance to Moscow. Also, after Russia illegally annexed parts of Ukraine, many teachers were forced to teach in Russian and follow a curriculum developed in Moscow.
In a report presented in December 2023, Amnesty International accused Russia of turning "education into a propaganda machine meant to indoctrinate children" and of trying to "destroy Ukrainian culture, heritage and identity".
CONTEXT/SOCIAL ETHOS: Since 2018, Ukraine has been implementing an extensive reform of the education system, called "The New Ukrainian School". The reform includes a new schooling structure: primary cycle (grades 1–4), gymnasium (grades 5–9) and high school (grades 10–12), which resembles the model used by the EU member states. The last stage of the reform will start in 2027, for the high school level, and will lead to the establishment of specialized institutions. Ukrainian students will have the opportunity to choose their specialization and a number of school subjects.