Over 20% of Kazakh citizens speak 3 languages: Minister of Culture
"According to the results of the annual study of the population's state language acquisition that demonstrates positive dynamics, the share of the population fluent in the state language was 83.1% (82.3% in 2016) in 2017. The share of the adult population who are proficient in three languages was 22.3% (20.5% in 2016)," the minister told a Government session, reporting on the results of the 2011-2020 Government Program for the Development and Functioning of Languages in Kazakhstan.
He pointed out that 610 civil servants of central executive authorities last year completed the state language courses (300 people in 2016) at the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In addition, there are 89 regional centers for teaching the state language in the country (87 centres in 2016). In 2017, 58,348 students attended the language courses at the training centers.
The minister underlined that last year the total number of people who passed the Kazakh language proficiency test was 94,458 people (73,732 people in 2016), of which 22,837 people were civil servants.
Meanwhile, in 2017, the share of the state-language documentation was 92% (91% in 2016). It equalled to 89% in central governmental authorities, 93.3% in local executive authorities, and 49.1% in national companies.