The new head of the Ministry of Education: what to expect from Lisovoy and why universities are already dissatisfied – people’s deputy

On March 17, it became known that the Minister of Education of Ukraine Serhiy Shkarlet resigned, on March 20 the Verkhovna Rada voted for his dismissal. On March 21, People’s Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak announced that the parliament supported the candidacy of scientist and soldier Oksen Lisovoy – he headed the Ministry of Education.

Former Deputy Minister of Education and People’s Deputy Inna Sovsun gave emotional reactions to the personnel changes in the department on her social networks.

“Scarlet was finally given a stocking and she can be released. Questions are raised by her colleagues who gleefully and thoughtlessly made her Minister of Education two years ago. Ladies and gentlemen, was it worth it?” commented on the resignation of the head of the ministry.

Sovsun also wrote about “lost years for Ukrainian students and students”. Focus He asked the people’s deputy what to expect from the new minister.

‘Not their type’: rectors unhappy

The appointment of Oksen Lisovoy has already worried the Ukrainian community of the rector. Inna Sovsun explains it very simply – she is “not their type” person.

“For them [ректоров] this is a hostile person according to their beliefs and views. Shkarlet was understandable to them, they were among them, and they accepted him. They were culturally compatible. And Lisovoy is a stranger to them,” the politician believes.

He believes rectors are concerned that the new minister may “break” the established system that has always terrified university leaders. And in Lisovoye, the rectors are already feeling this desire for reform and change.

According to Sovsun, the appointment of Lisovoy among the active pro-reform circle was supported on the contrary.

“Oksen has a good reputation. Let’s see how much he can do, because many problems have accumulated, both because of the war and because of the suspended education reform,” emphasizes the MP.

According to Sovsun, his joining the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces after a large-scale invasion plays in Lisovoy’s favor. And this is an important factor for the ministry, which is still unable to cope with the fact that Ukrainian students take lessons from Russian textbooks. The People’s Deputy also recalls that it took so long before Shkarlet’s team decided to change the curriculum and exclude the works of Russian writers.

“Of course, a person who has gone through the war will certainly take a different position,” emphasizes the interlocutor. Focus.

Duties of the new minister

According to Inna Sovsun, the new Minister of Education faces several main tasks:

1. Organize a safe environment in Ukrainian educational institutions as soon as possible. First of all, we are talking about bomb shelters and shelters that will allow children to study offline.
2. Working with program changes. This is especially true for fifth graders, where the NUS reform officially began on September 1, 2022, but was never implemented in practice.
3. De-russification of the educational process at all levels. “For example, graduates of school come to KPI – and there are Russian textbooks on higher mathematics. This should not happen,” emphasizes Sovsun.
4. Qualification requirements for rectors. “Ukraine needs clear, understandable rules about who and how to appoint, and specific qualification requirements that will apply to everyone,” says Sovsun.
5. Information tracking. Firstly, the Covid-19 pandemic and now a full-scale war do not give Ukrainian children the opportunity to get a full-fledged education. As a result, children of the same age from different regions are now at different stages of the educational process. In order to understand what schoolchildren have lost during this time, it is necessary to conduct a general knowledge audit, the deputy is sure. This will build an understanding of what gaps exist at the state level and how to make up for losses.

Which of these will truly be the priority of the new minister’s work will become clear once he takes office.

Son of dissidents and founder of Science Museum

Oksen Lisovoy was born in 1972 in the Kiev region in the family of Ukrainian dissidents Vasily and Vera Lisovs. Oksen’s father, the philosopher who published an open letter in defense of the sixties who was arrested in 1972, spent 11 years in camps and exile.

“Growing up in an atmosphere of warfare in the form of intellectual resistance to imperial suicidal nonsense, I clearly understood the logic of the deployment of social processes and value orientations,” Oksen Lisovoy said in an interview with Viknam.

Lisovoy graduated from the Kiev State Institute of Culture, in 2010 he became the director of the National Center “Ukrainian Small Academy of Sciences”. In 2020, together with Stanislav Dovhym, President of the Academy of Sciences, he initiated the creation of the first Science Museum in Ukraine launched at VDNG.

After the Russian invasion, he went to fight in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of the 95th separate air assault brigade.

As a reminder, January 2022 Focus In his article, he wrote that in 2021, the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, Serhiy Shkarlet, earned more than UAH 725,000 in his position, and the cost of maintaining the department he headed was more than UAH 183.5 million.