ASTANA – According to Kazakh Minister of Education and Science Aslan Sarinzhipov, 506 new kindergartens will begin operating in the country this year. The announcement was made during a Feb. 16 briefing at the Central Communications Service.
“This year we will continue developing the pre-school and education infrastructure in the country. Seventy-five out of the 181 facilities will be introduced this year. Another 431 objects will be put into operation. It is also planned to open 242 counseling centres on the base of pre-school organisations,” said the minister.
Sarinzhipov also stressed the importance of developing a school infrastructure. He noted that thanks to the introduction of 123 new schools in 2014, the number of dilapidated schools and schools working in three shifts has been reduced. Above all, the total number of schools equipped with modified class rooms has been increased. The minister also mentioned the increased number of students who attained professional education in the past year.
“We have adopted a roadmap for dual training. As an experiment, 280 colleges operate on the base of a dual system of education together with 3,225 enterprises. More than 21,000 students are engaged in the learning process,”said the minister.
In addition, the minister reported that 10 Kazakh universities were included in the QS ranking, an international ranking system of universities, as among the best universities in the world in 2014. Thus, the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Almaty) and Lev Gumilev Eurasian National University (Astana) were in the top 400; Satpayev Kazakh National Technical University and Ryskulov Kazakh University of Economics were ranked in the top 601-650; M. Auezov South Kazakhstan National University, Kazakh-British Technical University and Abai Kazakh National Pedagogic University were among the 651-700 and the top 700 included Buketov Karaganda National University, S. Seifullin Kazakh Agro-Technical University and Abylai Khan Kazakh University of International Relations and World Languages.
According to Sarinzhipov, a new cycle of scientific and technical programmes in the framework of a programme-target and grant funding will kick off in 2015.
“In all, 42.5 billion tenge (US$229.4 million) is allocated for this project, where 22.8 billion tenge (US$123 million) is allocated for programme funding and 19.7 billion tenge (US$106.3 million) for grant funding,” said Sarinzhipov.
The minister also said that the number of people engaged in the field of patriotic youth policy education exceeded the planned amount by 12 percent. During the past year, 47 social projects totaling 445 million tenge (US $2.4 million) were executed. Moreover, 75 youth resource centres have been created throughout Kazakhstan.
“As part of the Law on Youth Policy, it is planned to test the training programme for workers from 15 different youth resource centres. We will also increase the youth employment in construction work in the framework of the Nurly Zhol programme and ensure the implementation of development programmes for sports infrastructure,” said Sarinzhipov.
