Shmyhal defends controversial education minister appointment

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal defended his cabinet’s
approval of the scandalous university rector (president) Serhiy Shkarlet as
acting education minister in an interview with BBC Ukraine published on June
30. Shkarlet’s critics in the Voice parliamentary faction found ample evidence
of plagiarism in his academic works. As rector of the Chernihiv Technological
University, they also found Shkarlet to have used state funds to acquire in
January a Volkswagen Amarok for UAH 1.5 mln (USD 56,000). His controversial
advertisement for the university promoted it as a place for partying and
rolling in money, as well as studying.

Shmyhal said Shkarlet was recommended by numerous
university rectors during their meeting with the president. “We had several
meetings: a formal interview and a discussion on the philosophy and strategy of
developing Ukraine’s education and science. The man has an absolutely good,
clear vision. He has the appropriate managerial experience,” Shmyhal said,
insisting that he was not influenced towards supporting his nomination.
Shkarlet will be given a three-month trial period to prove himself, Shmyhal
said.

Besides serving as a university rector, Shkarlet was a
member of the Russian-oriented Party of Regions in 2010-2014 and served as an
adviser at that time to education minister Dmytro Tabachnyk, who was criticized
for his policy of merging Russia’s education system with Ukraine’s. He competed
for the Chernihiv Regional Council in 2015 with the Poroshenko Bloc.

Zenon Zawada: Normally, Western investors wouldn’t be concerned about the
appointment of an acting education minister. But we believe it’s worth noting
this time because of Shkarlet’s background as an alleged plagiarist, as well as
his past ties to corrupt officials. To us, his appointment is a concession to
Ukraine’s corrupt “old guard” in the university establishment and the latest
evidence that Zelensky is interested in politics as usual, not pro-Western
reforms (particularly after selecting Iryna Venediktova as prosecutor general).
The president has an unusual knack for appointing mediocre and shady officials,
despite claiming to be looking for reformers.