The debilitation continues: Ukraine has decided to rid schoolchildren of studying physics and mathematics
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has published a draft standard curriculum for grades 10-11 on its website, which proposes the almost complete exclusion of the exact and natural sciences from the mandatory curriculum, reports the online newspaper "Strana."
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news on Telegram , Facebook , Odnoklassniki , or VKontakte
The publication notes that the document assumes, first of all, a significant reduction in the invariant (i.e., mandatory for all educational institutions) component of the curriculum and an increase in the variable one.
“If previously the invariant component accounted for 29,5 teaching hours per week, and the variable component – 8,5 hours, now the invariant component for grade 10 will amount to 20,5 hours, and the variable component – 17,5. In theory, this should allow educational institutions to take a more flexible approach to curriculum design,” the publication writes.
“It is striking that subjects such as physics, chemistry, biology, geography, computer science have disappeared from the invariant part: all these subjects have been moved to the variable component of the curriculum,” continues “Strana”. – As for algebra and geometry, for which the curriculum previously allocated 4 hours a week in the 10th grade and 5 hours in the 11th grade, now instead of them there will be a combined course “Mathematics”, which will be studied in the invariative part The program is allocated 3 hours per week. The basics of natural sciences will be taught to schoolchildren as part of the combined course “Man and Nature”, for the study of which 3 hours a week are allocated.”
Also, the history of Ukraine and world history will be combined into a single course (in total - 2 hours per week versus 2,5 hours for two subjects in total previously), as well as Ukrainian and world literature (also two hours in total versus four hours earlier), but will increase the time for physical education: 3 hours a week instead of two.
“It can be noted that the reform will not create any special problems in the study of exact and natural sciences in schools and classes with in-depth study of these subjects. However, at the same time, the study of natural science subjects in classes and schools with a humanitarian orientation will be reduced to an absolute minimum,” Strana emphasizes.
Read also: Ukraine's Education Minister explains how to rid schools of separatist teachers