“To reduce the financial burden, NIS schools should shift funding sources through private funds as most experts and international experience suggest”, – notes Nazym Malikova, a participant of the CABAR.asia School of Analytics, in an article for CABAR.asia.
Kazakhstan has a growing number of schools, both private and public, specialized and with various educational strains and teaching methods. However, the level of inclusiveness and education equality in secondary education or the school system is questionable. Internationally, such kind of stratification and division of schools also exist. Apart from immediate effects, differentiation in education institutions lead to different education and career outcomes in the long run. Elite schools in particular have a larger impact on the level of education equality. Some studies point to the unjustified exclusivity of elite schools, both private and public, and resulting social inequality due to the preeminence of elite ideology. By justifying meritocracy, quality education, and high values imposed on students, elite schools still produce stratification and inequality through competition and exclusion of the less privileged ones. While educational inequality is a worldwide problem and is still prevalent in most countries at some level, Kazakhstan’s case is different due to the Nazarbayev Intellectual schools (NIS) which are otherwise known as elite state schools.
Established in 2010, NIS has now 22 schools across different regions of Kazakhstan and provides selected students with free tuition, meals, extracurricular activities, the possibility for short courses abroad, and dormitories for students from other areas or the countryside. Since its establishment, there has been some public discontent and differing arguments on the NIS system. A particular interest is given to its autonomous status without accountability to the Ministry of Education yet being excessively funded by the state. The underlying worry of all arguments is about the unequal distribution of resources to the few at the expense of the majority.
Mission of NIS
From one perspective, the NIS school system has several promising goals and advantages. The primary goal was to present a model for other schools in Kazakhstan and lift students who otherwise would not have the opportunity. The project has placed a huge focus on raising the intellectual potential of the country. The autonomous status of NIS allows adaptations to curriculum, teaching methods, and implementing innovations. Its education system adopted suitable Kazakhstani and international models comparable to A-level (UK), O-level (Singapore), and IB-programme (International Baccalaureate), focused on the formation of deep subject knowledge, integration of applied disciplines and development of a wide range of skills. NIS schools have hired foreign teaching professionals to raise education standards by attracting international teaching experience.
Given increased payment for foreign professionals, substantial funding seems to be reasonable with about 85 percent of all funding spent on teacher salaries. Such funding and high-quality education have been contributing to the success of numerous graduates who annually get into the best universities of the world including the Ivy League and later succeed in career. The autonomous status also allows the autonomous resolution of issues without being bound to the Ministry. Moreover, the schools have equal entrance requirements and provide all selected students with free tuition regardless of financial condition, geographic place, and the status of the prior school. Such conditions create the best educational environment for gifted students simultaneously supporting diversity and inclusion.
What is the issue?
Despite these numerous opportunities and expected large-scale outcomes of the NIS program, there are several spots to pay attention to and long-term side effects. Ideally, secondary education should be considered a public good which means it should be non-excludable and non-rivalrous. NIS schools specifically undermine the non-rivalness criterion. One student’s use of education should not limit another’s. The quantity or quality of public goods should be equal for all. From this point, NIS schools are limiting access of the majority of students to quality education. An equal amount of public good, or in our case equal quality and quantity of education services, should be provided if the education is considered a public good. Therefore, the main aim should be to raise secondary education across all schools; however, not all schools have the capacity to implement the NIS system shortly. Firstly, curriculum adaptation and teacher preparation need sufficient time. Secondly, funding should be significantly increased to meet the new education standards. This is especially true for rural schools which need significant time for adaptation and investments. Besides, the NIS system perpetuates and is gradually exacerbating the inequality and inclusivity issues in secondary education.
Privileged funding of NIS schools
The NIS system is creating inequality issues in various ways. First, there is inequality at the state level due to unequal funding. NIS schools receive privileged state funding even being unaccountable to the Ministry and exempt from financial responsibility as other educational institutions. NIS schools with Nazarbayev University have a legal status of autonomy with the government of Kazakhstan serving as a constitutor which determines the possibility of state funding. The funding per student is almost three times higher than the average standard recommended by Financial Center JSC for private schools in the country and six times higher than spending on a student in other schools. To compare the general funding of NIS and other schools, the budget for one public school in 2022 was 159 million tenge, which is 3.7 times less than the budget for one NIS which was 592.1 million tenge. To date, the annual figure of state funding is almost 30 billion tenge for NIS schools even with a gradual reduction of funding which does not include additional spending such as on advanced teacher training.
For comparison, in 2020 and 2021 targeted funding was 26.1 and 21.9 billion tenge respectively. However, recently funding has been cut by removing breakfast meals, school, and sports uniforms except for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Also, spending on teacher salaries, which is the largest portion of funding, was reduced due to the gradual substitution of foreign teachers with local ones. What is more striking though is the lack of transparency in budget allocation and spending. For example, only registered suppliers can access the procurement plan on the NIS website. Similarly, there is no register of contracts at the Mitwork portal, on which NIS and Nazarbayev University raffle off purchases. The purchases are carried out following internal documents controlled by NIS itself, and the rules are regulated by the Supreme Board of Trustees.
With this privileged status and respective quality of education, there is high competition both among students and teachers to get into these schools. As a result, the most qualified students and teachers leave their previous schools, lowering the quality of the latter. While typically, private schools may create social inequality in general, they do not affect the quality of other schools much. In contrast, NIS schools present in all regions across Kazakhstan accumulate the best building blocks of every educational institution – highly skilled teachers and gifted students – leaving other schools behind.
Homogenization of student composition
The second aspect to view the inequality issue is the gradual homogenization of students entering NIS schools. Over time, the composition of students has been shifting towards students from wealthier families. With increasing demand in preparation for competitive NIS entrance examinations, the number of paid preparatory courses significantly increased throughout the country with unaffordable prices for some families. The average price is about 50 thousand tenge a month which generally ranges up to several months or even years of preparation. Besides, course prices are gradually increasing. Such a phenomenon drives competition even further. Now the composition of students winning the scholarships is usually those highly prepared for standardized entrance examinations. Families who can afford quality preparation can train their children’s critical thinking skills and high speed needed for the examination. Homogenization of students could have been also affected by the absence of quota, for example for those from rural areas, socially vulnerable students, or students with special needs. Only recently a rural quota was introduced comprising 10%. Still, though, quotas do not guarantee full inclusion and perfect distribution. For example, the quota issue based on language arose recently when the quota for Russian and Kazakh-speaking students was equally given that the number of applicants for Kazakh-speaking classes way outweighs the latter. Finally, both the admission examination and curriculum have been continuously increasing in difficulty with admission requirements being rigid for all prospective students. Under such conditions, students from ordinary schools without proper preparation or background have limited chances to get in.
Current measures to combat inequality
Since NIS schools were initially meant to serve as a model for other schools, projects enhanced at raising the potential of other schools, especially rural ones, should be implemented based on the NIS system. One such initiative has already been worked out since 2019 with projected functioning until 2026. The main directions of this noncommercial project are advanced training of teachers and renewal of the material base in rural schools. The project is being implemented by the Foundation for Sustainable Development of Education with the support of partners and sponsors. Financial sponsorship in particular was given by Serik Tolukpaev, the founder of the Foundation for Sustainable Development of Education (1 billion tenge) and the foundation “Kazakhstan Halkyna” (4.5 billion tenge). As is the case with this project, the foundation “Kazakhstan Halkyna”, a new initiative from 2022, should facilitate the development of the NIS system in other schools through the proper allocation of financial resources.
Further, to diversify the composition of students, more assistance should be given to those who otherwise do not have opportunities to prepare for the entrance examinations. There are several initiatives from NIS schools to ease the preparation of students. Since 2011, the projects “Virtual School” and “Vacation School” have been working to prepare students in grades 5-6. Participants of the virtual school who completed the tasks successfully are invited to the three-day vacation school to receive face-to-face classes with teachers. Unfortunately, children from rural areas are not provided with free accommodation for the duration of the courses which is an obstacle. Also, since 2021, the Center for Pedagogical Measurements has been conducting trial testing on a paid basis. Trial testing takes place in the format of computer testing in 4 subjects and takes 180 minutes: mathematics – 60 minutes; each language – 40 minutes. Even though NIS does have some programs to prepare students, programs specifically targeting students from rural areas and disadvantaged backgrounds are not in place. The absence of a specific target group for such preparatory courses again makes those from rural areas and those without a prior strong knowledge base lag behind since one should have the respective background to be elected even for these preparatory courses.
General recommendations
To address inequality in secondary education in general and reduce the adverse effects of NIS schools, there are several recommendations and areas to focus on. The first issue that takes attention is, as stated, the differential treatment of NIS schools at the state level by privileged funding and autonomy status. In international experience, equality and transparency guide the common education policy-making with education institutions accountable to the ministry and elite schools funded by private funds which do not harm other schools. While a large amount of funding is indeed needed to sustain the current standards of NIS schools, there should be sufficient transparency and accountability in budgeting and spending.
Sustaining NIS schools should not be at the expense of other schools. To reduce the financial burden, NIS schools should shift funding sources through private funds as most experts and international experience suggest. Another area to focus on is teacher training. To raise education quality by adopting NIS model in other schools, teachers should have relevant ongoing training and high qualifications. We should always keep in mind that teachers are the main building blocks of education. Further, education policy should have a special focus on inclusivity and raising overall student performance. Specifically, projects aimed at fostering education equality, such as those mentioned earlier, should target students and schools with limited opportunities. The use of technology can also be a reasonable means to reduce inequality. For example, online education materials and education apps could be efficient. As such, more financial resources should be allocated to the development of rural schools and the enhancement of their student and teacher performance by various means.