From the beginning, lessons on the Defense of Ukraine were part of the general school curriculum, and were taught separately in each school. Subsequently, a decision was made to transfer teaching to the so-called "centers", and the program itself became "experimental", which opened the way for corruption schemes with the participation of the Minister of Education Oksen Lisovoy, MP from "Golos" Inna Sovsun, and professional grant-taker Olena Shiyan.
To understand the order of the figures in question, it is worth noting that only in 2023, 1.7 billion hryvnias were allocated from the state budget for the implementation of the "Protection of Ukraine" school program. In addition, each city and region allocated funds from local budgets.
The essence of the scam is that the "Protection of Ukraine" program is being transformed from "ordinary" to "experimental", forcing all administrations and educational departments to write a request for participation on their behalf. According to the "experiment", which will last for 2 years, training will not be carried out in each school separately, but in so-called "centers": that is, all funding for the implementation of the program will go centrally through "one hands".
The creation of the so-called "centers" is not only the allocation of the budget for the training of course teachers, but also the funds for the purchase of the necessary inventory and equipment of the centers.
It is indicative that there are no clear prescribed recommendations for the purchase of equipment for centers, and educators are recommended to buy this equipment without announcing tenders. According to the statement of the Ministry of Education and Culture , the centers plan to equip, among other things, computer simulators for controlling drones, interactive laser shooting simulators and tools for mastering the rules of first aid. According to our sources, the recommendation to make purchases without tenders is not a coincidence: the circle of suppliers related to the Ministry of Education and Culture has already been determined, and the price includes a "kickback".
Regarding the budgets allocated for the training of teachers of the course, according to Oksen Lisovoy, at the end of 2023, 100 million hryvnias were allocated for the retraining of teachers of "Defense of Ukraine". Later, in the explanation on the website of the Ministry of Education and Culture regarding the implementation of the program, we find the figure of "more than 100 trained trainers". At present, it is difficult to say unequivocally how many teachers were trained for 100 million hryvnias, and whether the budget for their training will increase in the future.
The author and scientific leader of the "Protection of Ukraine" program is Minister Oksen Lisovyi, who also signed the Ministry's Order. But the signature of the representative of the Swiss-Ukrainian DECIDE fund, Antonina Makarevych, and the professor of the Lviv Regional Institute of Postgraduate Education of Pedagogical Education, Olena Shiyan, who has been working with grants for more than 10 years, also appear on the application.
In 2024, the Ministry of Education involved the Swiss-Ukrainian organization DECIDE, which specializes in educational projects in Ukraine with Swiss money, to implement the program. partners include the DOCCU Public Organization was the coordinator of the Swiss-Ukrainian project "Development of Civic Competences in Ukraine" from 2016 to 2018
Interestingly, Elena's husband, Roman Shiyan, is the author of the "New Ukrainian School" concept, which was adapted from the Russian program " Our New School ". The concept of the Russian program "Our new school" was developed by Roman Shiyan's brother - candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor of the Moscow Moscow State University Igor Shiyan .
We do not rule out that part of the narratives developed by Ihor Shiyan for schools of the Russian Federation could also be transferred to the "Protection of Ukraine" program, because Roman Shiyan is a member of the Reform Support Team at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
In the same story, people's deputy from the "Voice" party, Inna Sovsun, who is also one of the co-authors of the "Defense of Ukraine" educational program, is connected with the grants. According to our sources in the parliament, this program is a clean sweep of grant money for the next two years.
Regarding the real benefit from the implementation of the experimental program "Protection of Ukraine", we will quote the opinion of the Founder of the All-Ukrainian Association of Educational Projects, ex-Deputy Minister of Economy Andriy Blyzniuk, which he shared on his Facebook :
"From this year, they decided to cancel the subject "Defense of Ukraine" in ordinary schools and introduce it only in separate schools - Centers, which are elected in territorial communities at the rate of 80-1999 students of grades 10-11 per 1 center. And all these students must go to these Centers once a month to study the Defense of Ukraine there during the day (6 lessons, what to do with those who are sick and miss all 6 lessons is not specified. If you work remotely, the meaning of the project is not clear. If you go offline with another school, on another day, this is a huge additional stress for the child).
That is, during the war, the study of such a subject as the Defense of Ukraine is reduced to 1 time per month, and students have to travel tens of kilometers to the center to do it.
Why? Because UAH 1.5 billion of subventions have been allocated to improve the study of this subject, and this is an improvement.
Centers will be able to purchase additional equipment and improve the qualifications of their school's teachers in these subjects. All other schools should cancel this subject, because teaching it will not be paid for.
If the experiment turns out to be unsuccessful, it seems that everything should go back, but this is not certain, and after 2026, when the authors of the experiment will no longer exist, as well as the subsidy.
In this regard, I have several questions for the MES:
- Is it possible to ensure the safety of life and health of about 500,000 students who, in the conditions of alarms, blackouts, roadlessness and other military risks, will start a mass morning and evening movement to and from the Centers?
Who will accompany and be responsible for the lives of the children (30 children in a class, 2-3 grades 10 and the same number 11, that is, a total of almost 200 children from each school go either by school buses, if there are any, or by public transport)? How appropriate is it to organize such a movement in a warring country, and how will these stresses affect the psycho-emotional state of children, especially when a flight is nearby, or public transport dropped them off in the middle of a road or bridge during an emergency?
- Will military training centers for children become a military target for the enemy during war and missile attacks? Maybe Ukraine has extra means of air defense to protect each of these Centers, in every city and town?
- Is it effective to teach students any subject for one day a month, and then why not do it for all subjects?
- Why can't all schools be equipped with the necessary equipment (before the war, there were 16,000 public schools in Ukraine, now, without taking into account the occupied or destroyed ones, there will be no more than 12,000, that is, 1.5 billion UAH, that's about 100-125,000 UAH for each school)."
As we can see, from a practical point of view, the introduction of the experimental educational program "Defense of Ukraine" based on the so-called "cells" cannot withstand criticism. But what concerns the "sprinkling of funds" on programs of patriotic school education by the minister and his closest entourage - NABU detectives should be interested in this issue.
