Results of the year: new schools and dormitories, increased educational grants and scholarships
Currently, the republic is implementing a number of important initiatives of the Head of State to strengthen the education sector at all levels.
In particular, one of the most striking events of this year was the launch of the National project "Comfortable School", within the framework of which 369 schools of a new format will be built for 740 thousand student places. Read about new projects and achieved results in the field of education this year in the presented material.
● This year, 165 schools with 137 thousand student places have been commissioned across the country. Thus, issues with 12 emergency and 29 three-shift schools have been resolved. Major repairs have been completed in 210 schools.
● Within the framework of the national project "Comfortable School", the construction of 217 schools for 461 thousand students (in two shifts) has begun.
● Since the creation of the Education Infrastructure Support Fund (funds seized from corrupt officials), 151.9 billion tenge has been credited to a special account. As a result, the construction of 62 schools for 76.7 thousand student places was financed for a total amount of 96.5 billion tenge. As of December 1 of this year, 17 schools for 28.6 thousand students were put into operation.
● In the implementation of the Presidential Election Program, 718 schools are equipped with 1,067 modern classrooms for chemistry, physics, biology, STEM and robotics.
● Since September 1, free hot meals have been organized for 1.6 million children, including 1.4 million students in grades 1-4 and more than 200 thousand children from socially vulnerable segments of the population.
● To enhance the safety of students in state educational institutions, the installation and operation of appropriate systems is ensured as much as possible: video cameras, alarm buttons, turnstiles.
● A "Unified database of priority accounting" has been developed and is being implemented. The system for allocating places to kindergartens is being implemented in a pilot mode in two areas. The full launch is scheduled for 2024.
● In January this year, teachers' salaries were increased by another 25%. Thus, teachers' salaries have increased by 2 times in 4 years.
● Since September, the salaries of about 98 thousand educators have been increased by 30%.
● "1000 leaders of change in education". A program has been developed and is being implemented to select and train a personnel reserve from among strong teachers, following the example of the Presidential Youth Personnel Reserve.
● A program has been adopted to improve the quality of education in educational institutions "Birtutas tarbieh bagdarlamasy".
● The development of a unified voluntary funded system "Keleshek" has begun, which will become an additional mechanism for ensuring citizens' access to higher education.
Within the framework of the system, a special account will be opened for the child, to which the state will contribute the initial educational capital in the amount of 60 MCI (for children aged 5 years). It will begin to accumulate funds from voluntary contributions from parents, an annual state premium of 5%-7% and investment income.
With minimum contributions in the amount of 1 MCI per month, more than 3.3 million tenge will be accumulated by the 18th anniversary. With an increase in voluntary contributions from parents, for example, up to 3 MCI per month, it will be possible to accumulate more than 7 million tenge.
The system also provides for measures to support socially vulnerable segments of the population. In case of admission to the grant, the applicant will be able to use the accumulated funds for the purchase of housing.
● In 2023, over 88 thousand grants were allocated for the training of personnel with higher and postgraduate education, which is 23% more than in 2021. This indicator has been steadily growing since 2019, when the volume of government orders amounted to 51 thousand grants.
● Since September 1, the scholarship for students has been increased by 20% to 41,898 tenge (pedagogical sciences – up to 67,200 tenge), for undergraduates and doctoral students – by 15% to 97,024 tenge and 217,500 tenge, respectively.
● This year, 25 student dormitories with 5,9 thousand beds have been put into operation. By the end of the year, it is planned to open 19 more dormitories with 5,000 beds. In general, 55.5 thousand beds will be introduced at the expense of all sources by 2028.
● The scholarship of college students has been increased by 50%.
● 13 new dormitories have been opened for college students.
● The state educational order in VET organizations has been increased to 133 thousand places.
● In order to create a research ecosystem and develop breakthrough technologies, L. Gumilev ENU, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and M. Auezov SCU have been transformed into research universities. This will increase the contribution of university science to the socio-economic development of the republic, create fundamentally new products and technological processes in various sectors of the economy, increase revenues from the commercialization of scientific results, develop innovative educational programs taking into account new professions and technologies.
● The level of recognition of Kazakhstani universities in the international educational space has increased due to the expansion of participation in international academic rankings. Thus, 21 Kazakhstani universities entered the QS WUR 2023 rating – an increase of two times compared to 2018. The activity of universities of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Times Higher Education ranking is also increasing.
● Work continues on opening branches of leading foreign universities in Kazakhstan:
– A branch of Heriot-Watt University (Scotland) has been established on the basis of Aktobe Regional University named after K. Zhubanov;
– A branch of the University of Economics of Bydgoszcz (Poland) has been opened on the basis of Shakarim University;
– An agreement was signed on the establishment of a branch between Zhetysu University named after I.Zhansugurov and Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy)
– The Kazakh-German Institute of Sustainable Engineering (consortium of German universities) was established on the basis of Yessenov University;
– A branch of the University of Hong Kong has been opened on the basis of the Kazakh National Research Technical University named after K.Satpayeva;
– The Workshop of Lu Ban was opened on the basis of the East Kazakhstan Technical University named after D.Serikbayev and Tianjin Professional University (China);
– An agreement was signed on the opening of a branch of the Northwestern Polytechnic University (PRC) at the Kazakh National University named after Al-Farabi.
● Since September 1, the implementation of 30 innovative educational programs through the World Bank has been launched in a pilot mode to improve the quality of teacher education in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Their special feature is the emphasis on the development of research skills and digital competencies of teachers.
● Within the framework of cooperation with Coursera, a list of 25 higher educational institutions of the Republic of Kazakhstan has been identified for the implementation of the company's courses as a pilot project. To date, over 44 thousand students have completed more than 67 thousand courses on the Coursera platform and received appropriate certificates. These courses cover the fields of IT, entrepreneurship, physics and business.