Issues in Post-Soviet Secondary School Reform: The Case of Kazakstan1 (original) (raw)

Rethinking post-soviet legacy in education of Central Asia: focus on Kazakhstan

This presentation was made at IX World Congress of International Council on Central and Eastern Europe Studies held in Makuhari, Japan, on 3-8th of August, 2015. From the very moment of gaining independence and ever since education system of Kazakhstan has been reformed. Education system which was inherited from soviet time was criticized as being ideologically dogmatic by content, overcentralized and obsolete by structure, and, consequently, not competitive in an appropriate for new era way. Thus, reforms were carried out with a purpose to remove dogmatism from textbooks and way of teaching, to decentralize the governance and to modernize the system, and to bring competition or values of free market in every aspect of education. All taken together these reforms were believed to promote fast, significant and successful change in education system particularly and in society in general. Have those reforms achieved their purposes? What kind of change did they bring? Were these changes positive? If they were, why so many people are nostalgic about soviet education? This presentation analyzes education reforms in Kazakhstan, and invites to rethink the value of “post-soviet” legacy in education of Central Asia

Development of education in Western Kazakhstan in the 60-80-s of the XX century

Қарағанды университетінің хабаршысы. Тарих, философия сериясы, 2023

Development of education in Western Kazakhstan in the 60-80-s of the XX century The article discusses the main stages of education development in the region. Particular attention is devoted to the reasons for the lag in implementation rate of general secondary and vocational education. The introduction of extensive ways of development at the expense of increasing volume of the studied material, without considering the quality of teaching and the development of independent and critical thinking skills of students. The lack of teaching facilities providing the education system with highly qualified personnel. Correlation of education development pace in the region with the republican rates in general. The role of government reforms in overcoming the mentioned problems.

Education and Social Policy in Central Asia: The Next Stage of the Transition

Social Policy and Administration, 2005

This paper discusses the challenges facing the education system of Central Asia and evaluates how these have been addressed in the market economy. We first review the evidence on the economic return to education and determine how the rewards to different levels of education changed during the transition. We then examine the trends in school enrolment and evaluate whether changes in supply or demand explain the enrolment trends we observe. Finally, we evaluate the efficiency of the delivery of education and whether market forces have improved the management of schools. We conclude with a summary of the economic and policy lessons derived thus far from the educational transition. The paper uses aggregate administrative data supplemented with survey data, primarily from the Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan, on enrolment, completion, and expenditures.

Policy Brief: Education Reform in Kazakhstan

The Failure: Specialised elite secondary schools, called the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS), were launched in 2008. There are currently 20 such schools in the country. Graduates from the NIS often go on to study at the elite Nazarbayev University. This two-tier system favours a small number of elite students (who are selected at an early age) at the expense of the majority of students. The elite schools benefit from special funding diverted from the Ministry of Education & Science (MoES) by the Presidential Administration. Why to change: To reap significant benefits and positive externalities of a more inclusive education policy and a uniformly educated population Chances of inclusion into the OECD (Kazakhstan is not yet a member state but has expressed interest in joining)

Aims, Goals and Implementation of Soviet Education in Central Asia

Education in the Soviet system from the 1920s was a primary agency of radical socio-cultural transformation. The strategy of the Communist Party of the newly formed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (established 1922) was to mobilise the masses by co-opting them into the ideological project and vision. The Party management of intellectual, moral and social instruction was planned to ensure socialisation, social integration, and social order. Education also assisted in the formation of state and national identities. In Central Asia, as in the Russia, the aim of this policy was to create a new consciousness in the minds of the people which would be based on the collective model. This new worldview was to provide the populace with a reason for political obligation towards the Party. It also gave the regime legitimacy and authority. Soviet education was core in the secularization programme instigated to replace traditional and Muslim attitudes, values, beliefs, and social structures. Furthermore, education within Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan was designed to create patriotic industrious workers. Overall, the Soviet educational system was a social construction which under the circumstances improved the quality of life for the masses (especially the poor, young men, and urban women).

Educational development in a period of transition: the case of Kazakhstan

Central Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2021

Educational development in a period of transition: the case of Kazakhstan The development of education in the post-socialist space is one of the most interesting objects for comparative research. Countries that had similar or even identical education systems before the fall of the socialist regime can today serve as a research platform for testing modern theories of social development. According to modernization theory, the "underdeveloped" post-socialist countries had to catch up with their more "advanced" Western counterparts. Due to the fact that in all countries the goals of the reforms were similar, the expected result should have been more or less the same. However, despite the recommended reforms of Western consultants, different trajectories are observed in the educational system. Obviously, the prevailing tendencies in the educational system are divergence instead of convergence. According to the theory of dependence, the world is a single economic system, and countries, in turn, perform different roles and functions. On the example of Kazakhstan, we see that over 30 years of independence, the education system of independent Kazakhstan has received a worthy international recognition. During the years of Independence, a national model of education has been formed, aimed at improving the quality of training of human resources, meeting the needs of the individual, society and the state. A regulatory legal framework has been formed. The laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On education", "On higher education", "On science", "On the rights of the child in the Republic of Kazakhstan", "On the state educational accumulative system", "On the commercialization of the results of scientific and (or) scientific and technical activities "," On the status of a teacher "and others.

"Learn, learn, learn!" Soviet style in Uzbekistan: Education, Implementation and Planning

Social and Cultural Change in Central Asia: The Soviet Legacy, 2014

Chapter 1 in Akyildiz and Carlson (eds) Social and Cultural Change in Central Asia, London: Routledge, 2014. Sevket Akyildiz investigates the key role of mass education in the building of the Marxist-Leninist consciousness and in spreading of civic values and norms. Focusing on the newly constructed Soviet republic of Uzbekistan between 1924 and 1991, with a special attention on vocational-technical schools (trade schools) in the 1980s, Akyildiz's detailed study argues that mass education was one of the most important and successful channels for transforming society and the economy and for spreading communist ideology. Soviet education was designed to embed a communist and 'modern' culture in the local space and in the minds of children and teenagers.