PM held meeting on problems and prospects of education development in Kazakhstan
An open dialogue between the representatives of government agencies, educational organizations of four regions, as well as the cities of Astana and Almaty, and civil society was hosted on the platform of the Yasawi International Kazakh-Turkish University in Turkestan.
To date, Kazakhstan has developed and adopted the 2020 State Program of Development of Education and Science. The main focus of the program is to enhance competitiveness of human capital and raise the level of education in general. One of the new developments in the upcoming school year will be the introduction of a five-day school week for students in the first grade. This is due to the new school curriculum, which is based on the program of the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools. Next year, students from the second to ninth grades will also have a five-day school week. Since 2018, all other grades will shift to the new regime. Moreover, Kazakhstan plans to switch to a 12-year education system by 2020.
As noted in an address to the Government, a number of Kazakhs have raised questions about the quality of national education. The problems of school and pre-school education were also raised during the meeting, such as shortage of kindergartens in the region.
The participants of the meeting also discussed the implementation of trilingual education at schools, training of teaching staff, changing the format of the United National Testing system, as well as the transition to new learning technologies (switching to electronic journals and eContent.)
Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Dariga Nazarbayeva, Minister of Education and Science Yerlan Sagadiyev, Deputy Minister of Healthcare and Social Development Birzhan Nurymbetov and Vice Minister of National Economy Marat Kussainov spoke about the problems in the education system.
It was noted that from 2017, only university applicants will take the single national testing, while school graduates will take regular exams. The introduction of trilingual education is planned in the academic year of 2020-2021. From that year onward, all schools in the country, starting from the fifth grade, will be taught Kazakh Language, Kazakh Literature, History of Kazakhstan in the Kazakh language, and Russian language, Russian Literature, World History in Russian.
According to akim of the South Kazakhstan region, B.Atamkulov, there are 11 universities, 90 vocational educational institutions, and 1,053 schools in the region. In 2016, two schools began operating in the area, while the construction of six more schools is being completed. President of the Civil Alliance of the South Kazakhstan Region S.Zhamalbek told about the high educational potential of the region and proposed to open Nazarbayev Intellectual School in Turkestan.
Concluding the meeting, the Prime Minister instructed the Ministry of Education and Science to continue updating the curriculum of secondary education and improve the quality of education at all levels.
For reference:
The State Program of Education and Science Development for 2016-2019 is aimed at improving the competitiveness of education and science, and the development of human capital for sustainable economic growth. There are 7,160 public schools (teaching 2,724,000 students) in the country. The average number of students per class across the regions is as follows: South Kazakhstan region - 21 students, Almaty region - 18 students, Zhambyl region - 18 students, Kyzylorda region - 20 students, Astana - 25 students, Almaty - 24 students. 76 schools are to be built in 2015-2019 as per Nurly Zhol program.