Kazakstan’s secondary education system goes through reforms designed to solve the issues of overcrowding, poor funding in the majority of schools, and obsolete teaching techniques.
There are 21 Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools in the country and they consume almost one third of the state budget intended for secondary education, while the rest public schools are planned to have per capita financing in 2019. How is the reform going and will it have any positive outcomes?
There are 7,450 schools in the republic, including 43 per cent of low-capacity schools, i.e. schools with incomplete teaching staff and often with poor funding. Such schools are usually located in rural areas and have few students. However, urban schools usually have 40 students per class. The total budget allocated for secondary education in 2018 was 118 billion tenge, including expenses for Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools [NIS] and specialised schools with 14 thousand students, advanced training of teachers, construction of new schools, etc. Over 49 billion tenge (128,138,075 dollars), which is over one third of total budget for secondary education, is allocated for the study of students in NIS and specific deposit. A lower amount, 44.9 billion tenge (117,416,381 dollars), is allocated for the construction of new schools. Authorities admit that there is a shortage of schools in cities and they intend to engage businesses in construction. According to forecasts, more money will be invested in NIS in 2019-2020. Budget for secondary education in the Republic of Kazakstan for 2018 Total budget: 118 billion tenge if(“undefined”==typeof window.datawrapper)window.datawrapper={};window.datawrapper[“D77UL”]={},window.datawrapper[“D77UL”].embedDeltas={“100″:661,”200″:594,”300″:502,”400″:477,”500″:477,”700″:477,”800″:452,”900″:452,”1000”:452},window.datawrapper[“D77UL”].iframe=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-D77UL”),window.datawrapper[“D77UL”].iframe.style.height=window.datawrapper[“D77UL”].embedDeltas[Math.min(1e3,Math.max(100*Math.floor(window.datawrapper[“D77UL”].iframe.offsetWidth/100),100))]+”px”,window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(“undefined”!=typeof a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var b in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])if(“D77UL”==b)window.datawrapper[“D77UL”].iframe.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][b]+”px”}); President Nursultan Nazarbayev in article “Social modernisation of Kazakstan” has criticised the existing system of education noting that “the entire educational process is based on obsolete techniques.” “Such a critical component of the educational process as knowledge of history is absolutely far from solving the task of formation of personality, citizen and patriot. The reality is that students think the history of Kazakstan is ‘boring’, ‘uninteresting’, ‘complicated’. School curricula have programmes on basic military training, life-saving safety, based mainly on the obsolete Soviet educational system. Meanwhile, there are no innovative courses that our students need today,” president wrote in the article. He thinks that some young people can easily become ‘targets’ of religious sects, extremists, addicted and criminal groups. However, the task of interactive education development has been taken and implemented insufficiently. The advanced online education should be developed with the use of online teacher-student interaction and the educational process should be totally modified. Billions for Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools The so-called Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools were opened in 2008 for a qualitative reform in education. They should have applied innovative techniques, had best financial capacities, and also attracted best teachers and students.
According to Askar Mukashev, an analyst of CABAR.asia, who has worked in the NIS system, schools should have become experimental grounds for the study and implementation of international advanced teaching techniques in national schools.
“Many billions have been spent on this from the national budget. According to the results of international tests among school students across the country, NISs have generally succeeded in terms of bringing education in line with international standards,” the researcher said. “The results of tests show that NIS students can easily compete with the best world schools of Singapore and Finland in terms of quality of education, and also win international contests.” “But when we take national average data, the general ranking goes down and we don’t top the list. We should emphasise here that NIS select a priori the most capable and smartest students based on specific criteria. It’s obvious that even if these students achieve good results, we cannot expect the same from ordinary public schools,” Mukashev said. To bridge the significant gap between NISs and ordinary public schools, it was decided to start the process of experience sharing. The process was launched in 2015 with the implementation of updated educational content for first-graders.“As part of sharing experience, the entire educational content, grading system are being updated, new teaching techniques are being introduced. Everything seems to be fine, but… The whole process is under pressure. Thousands of teachers have been allegedly retrained under a new programme within a very short time, but the point is how qualitatively they have mastered the programme within this time. The second question is whether before the launch of the updated programme the readiness of district and rural schools to such changes has been monitored or studied in terms of material and technical resources and qualification of teachers. The idea is good and very relevant in our reality, but the process of implementation is the weakest point in our country, as usual… As they say, haste makes waste,” Mukashev said.
It should be noted that NISs are organised in such a way that students receive a grant from the state, which makes it possible to provide this level of education. In 2016, it took 1,800,000 tenge (4,700 dollars) per annum from the national budget to support one NIS student. This amount included payment to teachers, administration, food, uniform, hobby groups, maintenance of buildings, internet, etc.
Now the ministry suggests turning to the system of per capita financing in public schools. Now 5 pilot public schools in each city, Almaty and Astana, are funded from the national budget on the per student basis. From 2020, all state public schools will turn to this principle. Besides, private schools can also apply to the per capita financing from the republican budget. Currently, the pilot project covers 1.8 per cent of the total number of students. Over 4.8 billion tenge has been allocated to the project, in 2019 the amount is planned to reach 23 billion tenge (60,146,443 dollars), and by 2020 it will be 125,918,000,000 tenge (328,498,953 dollars). if(“undefined”==typeof window.datawrapper)window.datawrapper={};window.datawrapper[“AdD0s”]={},window.datawrapper[“AdD0s”].embedDeltas={“100″:506,”200″:456,”300″:406,”400″:381,”500″:381,”700″:356,”800″:356,”900″:356,”1000”:356},window.datawrapper[“AdD0s”].iframe=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-AdD0s”),window.datawrapper[“AdD0s”].iframe.style.height=window.datawrapper[“AdD0s”].embedDeltas[Math.min(1e3,Math.max(100*Math.floor(window.datawrapper[“AdD0s”].iframe.offsetWidth/100),100))]+”px”,window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(“undefined”!=typeof a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var b in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])if(“AdD0s”==b)window.datawrapper[“AdD0s”].iframe.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][b]+”px”}); According to vice minister of education and science of the Republic of Kazakstan, Bibigul Asylova, the state cannot solve the problem of overcrowded schools in the short term. There are still schools in disrepair and triple-shift schools in the country. Now 112 schools are under construction in the country, but this is not enough. Statistically, about 45 thousand people, including 20 thousand children, moved to Astana in the first six months of this year. The state cannot keep pace with the mass migration. According to rough estimates, only the newcomers need 15 new schools. The ministry suggests involving businesses to the mass school construction.Even if NIS students achieve good results, we cannot expect the same from ordinary public schools,” Mukashev said.
“Businesses should come and build the schools. We have amended the qualification requirements together with SNiP and SanPIN specifically for this purpose. Deregulation has occurred. First, we have increased the maximum nominal capacity of schools in Almaty and Astana up to 3 thousand students, and reduced requirements to the mandatory availability of open space to 40 per cent of a school building, and we have allowed five-storey school buildings in Astana and four-storey school buildings in particular regions. A school should not necessarily have an indoor gym, which can be located within walking distance from school, about 500 metres (two schools can lease one sports complex). Schools may be opened in private houses, adapted buildings with ceiling height 2.9 metres, and can contain no more than 300 students. A health station should not necessarily be in the school; it’s enough for a school to have a contract with the health care organisation. It’s also enough to have a contract of property and equipment lease for the minimum period of 10 years, and the building is not necessarily to be owned. Also, it’s enough to have a contract for student catering,” Bibigul Asylova, vice minister of education and science, said to journalists at the press conference.
According to the plans of ministry of finance, per student expenses will be around 300 thousand tenge per annum (784 dollars). The per capita financing in public schools will supposedly cover their tuition fees, internet costs, current expenditures, repair expenses, some portion of capital repairs. Thus, the problem of lack of funds will be solved and the ‘voluntary parental contributions’ will be eliminated.
In what way other students are worse than NIS students?
A member of the finance and budget committee of Mazhilis (lower chamber of the parliament) of the Republic of Kazakstan, Irina Smirnova, thinks there are many problems in the system of education and they are not getting any smaller.
“All schools are overcrowded. It’s only A to M elementary school grades in Astana. The cities have encountered the problem of overcrowding due to the on-going process of urbanisation. In rural areas, schools are old and fall to pieces. We have almost one half of low-capacity schools, i.e. when students of two grades, first and second graders, study in one classroom. One teacher can teach two grades at a time. I have sent many questions regarding three languages, teachers’ salaries and training. They have trained hundreds of thousands [of teachers] under the state programme, and only 800 teachers work. Where is everyone else? Now they say they should be trained again. The state cannot guarantee they will stay at schools after retraining. These teacher training courses cost a lot for the budget,” MP said.
We should mention that the three-language system is being implemented in schools, i.e. classes should be taught in English, Kazak and Russian. Teachers of such profile disciplines as physics, mathematics, etc., have never been fluent in English. The 2018 project provides for 6.9 billion tenge to be spent for the transition to the three-language system in some disciplines. Also, textbooks for elementary school raise host of questions among parents and teachers. Last year, Russian textbooks contained such tasks as to watch a popular talk show and to discuss it, and uneducated words have been used. Russian language teachers have stated in the media that the textbook was apparently made for kids who don’t speak the language at all. The similar situation is with math and English textbooks. “They are very expensive, although they were written and published in our country. A set of textbooks for a first grader costs around 15 thousand tenge. Why do they replace the textbooks with poor-quality textbooks every 4 years? They contain elementary grammar mistakes. The reform is on-going but the purpose of it is unclear. When the ministry of education proposes their ideas, they have good intentions. But we see what parents say about it. Today English textbooks were discussed in social media. As soon as you open the book, you see grammar mistakes there.” The MP thinks there are positive changes any way. The facilities in city schools have improved. Teachers’ salaries have slightly increased from 50 thousand to 140 thousand now. This is not much, but health workers receive even less. A supervising teacher receives 4 thousand tenge for his/her class per month. Newly formed NISs demonstrate good results. Changes in per capita financing and NIS expenditures if(“undefined”==typeof window.datawrapper)window.datawrapper={};window.datawrapper[“jxF9E”]={},window.datawrapper[“jxF9E”].embedDeltas={“100″:477,”200″:452,”300″:402,”400″:377,”500″:377,”700″:352,”800″:352,”900″:352,”1000”:352},window.datawrapper[“jxF9E”].iframe=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-jxF9E”),window.datawrapper[“jxF9E”].iframe.style.height=window.datawrapper[“jxF9E”].embedDeltas[Math.min(1e3,Math.max(100*Math.floor(window.datawrapper[“jxF9E”].iframe.offsetWidth/100),100))]+”px”,window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(“undefined”!=typeof a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var b in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])if(“jxF9E”==b)window.datawrapper[“jxF9E”].iframe.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][b]+”px”}); In billions tenge “Students studying there feel good. But every stick has two ends. These schools are deemed elite ones. We went to a rural school that doesn’t have a sports ground. Students play a rag ball on the ground. They are the same kids as the kids of NISs. If you visit this school in winter, it’s bitter cold there, students wear gloves during classes. WCs are outside. Some schools don’t have water supply systems. For example, a new school in the village of Kosshy, near Astana, is three times overcrowded. There’s another old school for 700 students, which teaches 2,100 students. WC is outdoors. This is what the situation is like one kilometre away from the capital,” Smirnova said. According to the MP, per capita financing could be a way out of the existing situation. New private schools will be built and the state will pay for students. It’s important that a public school will guarantee the standard education to a student and all children will have access to quality education. “But what I stand for is that NIS should follow the same principle, while parents should pay for the rest. Why should a country teach them all? The alumni of these schools are motivated to go abroad. After all, no one of them would stay in the country,” Smirnova said.This publication was prepared as part of the Giving Voice, Driving Change – from the Borderland to the Steppes Project implemented with the financial support of the Norway Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect the position of the editorial team or a donor.