Education Reforms in Kazakhstan: International Integration and Nationalization Efforts

Abstract

In a globalized and increasingly integrated world for almost every field, Kazakhstan’s education system has also aimed for international integration in the post-independence period. However, the education system inherited from the Soviet era in which all children had access to free education, qualified teachers were trained, and scientific development was open with many research institutes has been deteriorating for 20 years, especially in the first 10 years after independence due to economic inadequacies and insufficient education and training reforms. Many needed materials were unable to be supplied to schools, qualified teachers went abroad, and some children did not even have access to education or training. Kazakhstan has achieved positive results by prioritizing international integration, legal regulations in education, and national and international programs, as well as by using various economic resources that have been created over time. By supporting global competition in the economy, the country has started to raise qualified individuals who combine national values with international culture.

Introduction

International economic and cultural interactions have been increasing in the globalizing world. The field of education and training has also been affected by these developments, with local and national practices becoming increasingly internationalized. This transformation brings many benefits, with the effects on the infrastructure of the education system being among the most important of these. The infrastructure of Kazakhstan’s education system began to change from its Soviet-era infrastructure in the 1990s when it was opened up to international integration, providing free education for all children, having qualified teachers, and being open to scientific development with a large number of research institutes being the prominent elements of this infrastructure (Yakavets, 2014, p. 1).

In 2014, a study conducted in collaboration with Nazarbayev University and the University of Cambridge examined the process of educational reform in Kazakhstan, which had declared its independence in 1991. In addition to examining official documents from this period, teacher and student interviews were also conducted within the scope of the research, which accordingly determined international integration to have had many benefits for Kazakhstan’s education system in the form of making legal arrangements related to education, organizing institutions related to education, organizing various programs related to education, harmonizing the education curriculum with national values and international standards, and improving the quality of education and training institutions (Bridges, 2014).

In general, the goal of reforms in the education system has been economic development and a world-class quality education. However, understanding that the educational policies and practices in Kazakhstan, as in every country, have been shaped by its society’s past experiences, history, culture, and traditions is equally important. While Kazakhstan has attempted to bring its education system up to international standards, some of the features of the Soviet Union have been preserved, such as the continued influence of the centralized approach in the education system. However, various innovations have been made to improve the quality of the education system and bring it in line with international standards. For example, while the education system aims to create a national culture and increase the use of the Kazakh language, importance has also been given to increasing the use of the English language in addition to Russian as a requirement of international integration.

In addition to creating and preserving its national culture, Kazakhstan has aimed to reach international standards in all areas, from economics to social and educational issues. To this end, Kazakhstan has signed and participated in many protocols related to education and to human and children’s rights. These include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Lisbon Convention on the Recognition of Higher Education Related Qualifications in the European Region; and the Bologna Declaration. Together with all these efforts, Kazakhstan has identified the training and development of human resources at international standards as one of the priorities of its 2020 Strategic Development Plan.

This study investigates how international integration has impacted Kazakhstan's education system in both quantitative and qualitative aspects. Of these two dimensions, the quantitative dimension includes the material dimension of the education system in Kazakhstan, as well as its institutions, schools, laws regulating the education system, and the programs and methods that have been implemented. Meanwhile, the qualitative dimension involves the content of the education system, how the quality of its content have been improved, and what factors affecting the content have been prepared. Therefore, examining the effects of international integration in education on the Kazakhstan education system has been deemed appropriate under two main headings: the effects of integration on the organizational structure and the scope of education.

The Effects of International Integration on Organizational Structure

Like all states that declared independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan faced the difficult task of building its own economic order. The lack of any previous experience with democracy coupled with administrative difficulties made its reconstruction even more difficult. Therefore, great economic challenges and significant shortcomings existed in Kazakhstan’s education and training reforms in the 20 years after its independence, especially in the first 10 years. Many materials that were needed in schools could not be supplied, qualified teachers had gone abroad due to the delayed payment of their already low salaries, and some of the children did not even have access to education or training opportunities. Because the education system that had been maintained under a certain order and system during the Soviet period had disappeared, building a new education system had become necessary, and due to significant economic difficulties, Kazakhstan’s education system deteriorated significantly during these years (Yakavets, 2014, pp. 4–5).

The 1992 Law on Education established the Ministry of Education (later renamed Bilim Jäne Ġılım Ministrligi [Ministry of Education and Science]) as the executive center of the education system. The Ministry was tasked with preparing draft education budgets, determining curricula, providing the necessary training for educators, representing the education system internationally, and inspecting educational institutions. The 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan regulated the scope of education. First of all, it recognized every child in Kazakhstan to have the right to a free education. The decisions were also made that no discrimination would occur on issues such as religion, language, ethnicity, or gender and that everyone would have equal rights through inclusive education (Yakavets, 2014, pp. 7–9). In the context of the international integration of Kazakhstan’s education system through the inclusive education approach, international conventions and agreements have been harmonized and appropriate national laws have been adopted. The adoption of the inclusive education approach organized the infrastructure of the education system to include every child, including the disabled and prepared the infrastructure that children in need of special support required, such as psychological support. Infrastructures such as school toilets were harmonized with the required hygiene standards, and teachers and other personnel working in schools were trained (Rollan, 2021, p. 9).

However, the implementation of the legal arrangements and the necessary organization were not easily realized. The Ministry’s managers had not experienced the basic features of democratic order in the Soviet era, such as efficiency, accountability, and free market conditions. In addition, the high level of financial inadequacies had resulted in a lack of successful performance, which led to a high turnover of personnel including the Minister, which worsened the already low performance due to policy changes. Due to financial difficulties, 303 kindergartens were closed in 1993, and the number of secondary schools was also reduced. Due to the state’s legal incentives and the emergent need, the process of private education institutions began (Bolatova, 2019, p. 51). Due to economic inadequacies, the budget allocated for the education system in Kazakhstan had been compulsorily reduced. While the proportion of the gross domestic product (GDP) allocated to education was 4% in 1995, this rate decreased to 3.3% in 2000 (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

Government expenditures on education (No data available for years not shown in the figure; World Bank Database Education Statistics, 2024)

After the 2000s, various reforms in the education system and international integration efforts were aimed at increasing the quality and quantity of education. Despite these efforts and due to economic inadequacies, the education system received the lowest budget allocation of 2.3% of GDP in 2005. As can be seen in Fig. 1, no significant increase occurred in Kazakhstan’s budgetary allocation to the education system in the following years. In fact, compared to other countries with similar incomes, Kazakhstan allocates relatively lower resources to the education system. This inadequate allocation of resources to the education system has led to low teacher salaries, overcrowded urban schools, and inadequate equipment. In order to fully achieve the goals set out in legislation and in strategic documents, a gradual increase in public spending has become necessary (Pons et al., 2015, p. 3).

The Kazakhstan Education Strategy 2011–2020 defined the strategy of teacher education reform. The main objective of the Teacher Education Reform program has been to ensure the professional development of teachers in public schools so that students in schools can be educated as students with the international qualifications of the twenty-first century. In order for teachers to be qualified at international standards, 3-month training has been provided through Centers of Excellence in accordance with the continuous in-service training approach (Wilson et al., 2013, p. 1).

International integration has also had an impact on the general management and internal administration of schools in Kazakhstan’s education system. First of all, schools are affiliated with the Ministry of Education and Science and operate under the management and control of the Ministry. Importance is had in having the teachers and administrators who work in schools be qualified according to international standards and the administrators be appointed in accordance with objective criteria. As in many developed countries, this is done by selecting school principals from among teachers who have a certain number of years of experience and who have been successful based on certain performance criteria (Yakavets, 2016, p. 686).

Kazakhstan has decided that it needs to build a good education system infrastructure for economic growth and has set the following organizational goals in education in the 2011–2020 Education Strategy in order to achieve this (Ministry of Education and Science, 2010, pp. 2–3):

• Improving the inclusive education system in schools,

• Ensuring that all students have equal access to the best educational resources and technologies,

• Full inclusion of children in pre-primary education and training,

• Developing new mechanisms for financing education to increase the availability of quality education,

• Training highly qualified personnel for the education sector,

• Increasing government support and incentivizing the teacher workforce,

• Improving education governance, including the implementation of corporate governance principles,

• Developing a public–private partnership system in education,

• Improving the system for monitoring educational development, including the production of national education statistics in line with international standards,

• Ensuring automation of the training process,

• Expanding the network of preschool organizations,

• Solving the problems of unrated schools,

• Developing a personnel training infrastructure for economic sectors,

• Increasing the prestige of technical and vocational education,

• Providing the appropriate infrastructure and organization for lifelong education.

Kazakhstan has wanted to bring education and training in line with international standards. In this context, the duration of compulsory primary and secondary education was increased from 10 to 12 years. The duration of pre-university education and training is 1 year of compulsory preschool education and training, 4 years of compulsory primary education, 5 years of compulsory basic secondary education, and 2 years of general or technical-vocational secondary education (high school; Yakavets, 2014, pp. 7–9). The main motivation for this change is the 12-year compulsory primary and secondary education most developed countries have. Kazakhstan made this policy change in order to move to the same quality of education as these countries, thus ensuring that its students receive internationally recognized education and training. The stages of pre-university education, the number of years each stage lasts, and the age at which children enter each stage are shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

Stages of Kazakhstan’s pre-university education system (Independent Agency for Quality Assurance in Education, 2024a)

In Kazakhstan, schools are affiliated with the Ministry of Education and Science, and the Ministry provides leadership with regard to making the necessary controls in the context of the education system’s ideal organizational structure, providing a standard of education in accordance with international science, and determining policies for all Kazakh children and young people. Therefore, the Ministry has been organized in accordance with these objectives, and the Committee on Secondary Education, the Committee on Quality Assurance in the Field of Education, and the Committee for the Protection of Children's Rights have been established within the Ministry. The services this structure provides are summarized as follows:

• Organizing the enrollment of preschool children (up to 6 years of age) in preschool education institutions,

• Organizing student enrollment in primary and secondary education institutions,

• Organizing external studies on basic secondary education and general secondary education institutions,

• Organizing the provision of pedagogical support to children in educational institutions,

• Organizing the awarding of post-training diplomas,

• Competitively appointing heads of state secondary education institutions based on certain criteria,

• Organizing in-service trainings for teachers

• Granting the license required for undergraduate and postgraduate studies,

• Establishing guardianship or custody for children without parents,

• Assigning allowances to guardians or caregivers for the care of children without parents.

According to Kazakhstan legislation, Article 56 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated July 27, 2007 “On Education” sets out in detail the standards for compulsory primary and secondary education. The standards mostly specify details about the content of education, which is examined in detail under the following sub-sections. The maximum weekly teaching hours for each grade level are also determined in accordance with this law, with Table 1 providing the course hours for primary, basic secondary, and general secondary education (Ministry of Education and Science, 2010, pp. 35–39).

Table 1 Primary, basic secondary, and general secondary education class hours

As mentioned above, pre-university education and training in Kazakhstan consists of preschool education, primary, and secondary education. These three education and training institutions have been formed as a result of Kazakhstan’s international integration and are analyzed in the following sub-sections.

Preschool Education

During the Soviet period, education and training was given importance in Kazakhstan as in other Turkic Republics, and various education and training institutions were opened at a certain level, with education and training being carried out at a certain level of quality and order provided that it was in accordance with the Soviet ideology. Between 1960 and 1990, various studies were carried out to remedy the missing educational institutions as well as the instructors needed in preschool education. For example, education faculties were opened in universities, and highly educated specialists were trained. These efforts paid off, with the percentage of children aged 3–6 receiving preschool education in Kazakhstan having reached 47.8% by 1990 (Zhumasheva, 2018, p. 27).

Preschool education was also emphasized in the post-independence period, but education and training opportunities deteriorated in the first years after independence due to economic difficulties, especially in rural areas. In the first decade after independence, a 65% decrease occurred in preschool education institutions due to financial constraints. The closure of preschool education institutions naturally led to a decrease in the number of children benefiting from preschool education (Bolatova, 2019, p. 55).

In order to find a solution to this situation, Kazakhstan first made the necessary legal arrangements. Through the Law on Education, Kazakhstan adopted the Law on the Compulsory Preparation of Children for Pre-School Education on June 7, 1999. For the first time among the independent republics, Kazakhstan had adopted a compulsory preschool education. This shows that Kazakhstan had identified preschool education as a priority area in its education system. After the adoption of this law, one-year preschool education classes started to be opened in schools. After the 2000s, preschool education opportunities in Kazakhstan increased rapidly. Table 2 shows the increase in the percentage of children aged 3–6 receiving preschool education in Kazakhstan over the years. Gross enrollment ratio—the number of students enrolled at a given educational level, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population at the same educational level.

Table 2 Enrollment rate for preschool education for ages 3–6

Preschool education Kazakhstan occurs between the ages of 1–6 and is planned in three stages according to the age of the children. Various objectives are set for each age group, and arrangements are made accordingly (Yıldırım & Buluç, 2022, p. 248):

• The First Step Program for those 1–3 years of age aims to teach basic communication skills and motor movements.

• The Smart Child Program for those 3–5 years of age aims to contribute to the children’s physical and social development. The importance of preschool education is considered important first for developing the country and secondly for developing children’s personalities. Therefore, the program aims to contribute to the personality formation of children through preschool education, aiming in this context to develop such aspects as healthy physical development and improved healthy social communication skills, as well as to transfer a certain level of information.

• The We Go to School Program for those 5–6 years of age: In order to raise the quality of education to international standards, the decision was made that children should be prepared for the school process. Thus, preschool education in Kazakhstan is closely linked to the national development strategy. The program aims to promote children’s healthy personal development, increase their language and communication skills, and develop their knowledge and creativity in areas ranging from mathematics to art.

In addition to these programs, additional methods suitable for international integration have been used for the preschool education system in Kazakhstan. The Maria Montessori method is used to apply pedagogical methods suitable for children’s individual development. The mental arithmetic method is used to provide children with mental development by making arithmetic calculations with a virtual abacus they create in their minds. The Waldorf pedagogy method is used to teach children pieces of information appropriate to the child’s age instead of teaching traditional knowledge. Also, the Zaitsev method is used to teach sounds and objects with specially produced cubes (Bolatova, 2019, pp. 60–61).

In the post-independence period, Kazakhstan has attached importance to preschool education in order to raise its education to international standards and has implemented programs and methods in accordance with international standards for the personal, social, and cultural development of children in the preschool period in order to provide education in accordance with the national culture and language and to remove the language and cultural influence of Russia. In this way, Kazakhstan has aimed to provide the best personal development for children and to ensure that they have a good profession in the future and that they contribute to the country’s economic development.

Primary Education

Primary education in Kazakhstan covers a compulsory education and training period lasting a total of 4 years, starting when children are 6–7 years old. Aiming for international integration in education, Kazakhstan has determined the main objectives of primary education and the content of education and training activities in accordance with international norms. Accordingly, the objectives of primary education in Kazakhstan are:

• Teaching material and spiritual human values,

• Teaching basic information about nature and society,

• Having students gain the competencies of reading, writing, counting, self-expression, and perceiving cause-and-effect relationships,

• Ensuring the initial formation of the skills of finding the information needed and for analyzing and interpreting the information that is found (Zhumasheva, 2018, p. 31).

Article 56 of the Republic of Kazakhstan’s Law on Education sets out in detail the standards of compulsory primary education. These standards can be summarized as follows. Accordingly, importance is attached to ensuring integrity and continuity in the education system. In the context of this continuity, the use of knowledge obtained from education and training should also be ensured in practical life. The objectives of the education system should be taken into account for all decisions to be taken. The main objective of the education system is to increase the quality of education. In this context, raising individuals who are loyal to their homeland, open to development and innovation, integrated with the world, and know the Kazakh, Russian, and English languages is important. Critical to the realization of these goals is measuring and evaluating the performance of each stage of the education and training system using predetermined objective criteria (Legal Information System of Regulatory Legal Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan).

Primary education in Kazakhstan has continued being as widespread as it had been during the Soviet Russian era. Table 3 shows the percentage of children between the ages of 7–10 attending primary education in Kazakhstan by year. Gross enrollment ratio—the number of students enrolled at a given educational level, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population at the same educational level.

Table 3 Primary education enrollment rate for children between 7 and 10 years of age

Secondary Education

Secondary education in Kazakhstan consists of basic secondary education and general secondary education (or technical/vocational secondary education). Basic secondary education is a compulsory education and training period lasting a total of 5 years, which children attend between the ages of 10–14. General secondary education is a compulsory 2-year period of education and training that children attend between the ages of 15–16. General secondary education can also take the form of technical or vocational secondary education (profile school).

In order to meet Kazakhstan’s own needs and provide a high level of general secondary education in line with international standards, the country has created schools with different structures. For example, schools have time differences in the form of evening and day schools, as well as general secondary schools that differ in terms of content. Kazakhstan’s general secondary school types can be grouped as follows (Zhumasheva, 2018, p. 33):

• Comprehensive school: Implements the standard program of primary, secondary, and general secondary education as defined by law.

• Small school: A program that combines classes with too few students.

• Gymnasia: Implements the standard primary, secondary, and general secondary education program as defined by law, plus additional programs such as social sciences according to students’ abilities.

• High school: Implements the standard secondary and general secondary education program as defined by law in a more in-depth manner.

• Technical or vocational secondary education (profile school): Implements the standard general secondary education program as defined by law in the form of an advanced vocational specialization program.

Article 56 of the Republic of Kazakhstan’s Law on Education sets out in detail the standards for compulsory secondary education. All stages of the education and training system should be structured in a coherent and continuous manner in accordance with the country’s economic, social, and cultural development and nationalization goals. Educational and training materials should be renewed accordingly, the content of these materials should be as relevant as possible to practical life, and these opportunities should be provided to all individuals of the country with equal opportunities. Having students learn Kazakh, Russian, and, for international integration, English is essential. The inclusion of local languages should also be allowed in education.

In order to achieve these goals, educators are to be continuously developed within the scope of lifelong learning programs. In addition, the results of education and training activities will be measured by objective criteria at every stage. For example, students’ foreign language skills will be tested using internationally recognized exams. In conclusion, importance is attached to the realization of national and cultural values alongside international integration, thus ensuring that individuals will be raised who are innovative and open to development (Legal Information System of Regulatory Legal Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2023). Basic secondary education in Kazakhstan has broadly continued its activities as had occurred during the Soviet Russian period. Table 4 shows the ratio of children between the ages of 11–15 attending basic secondary education in Kazakhstan by years. Gross enrollment ratio—the number of students enrolled at a given educational level, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population at the same educational level.

Table 4 Enrollment rate of 11–15 year olds in secondary education

General secondary education in Kazakhstan continues to operate at a high level. Table 5 shows the percentage of children between the ages of 16–17 attending general secondary education in Kazakhstan by years. Gross enrollment ratio—the number of students enrolled at a given educational level, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population at the same educational level.

Table 5 Secondary education enrollment rate for 16–17 year olds

The Effects of International Integration on the Scope of Education

During the Soviet era, the content of primary and secondary education in Kazakhstan was shaped in accordance with the state philosophy. For example, all students were given a uniform science and mathematics education, with the aim being to blend the Marxist-Leninist ideology with a uniform education and thus to impose and teach the philosophy of the state to students alongside the humanities and social sciences. The reason for applying this approach was the idea that the humanities and social sciences can only be taught correctly when they are taught alongside the philosophy of the state.

Another important issue that draws attention in terms of the content of education during this period is that education and training were rote memorization-oriented. Students were asked to learn what was explained in the books, questions were asked according to what was written in their books, and comments were not asked. Thus, students learned what was written in books as the only truth and answered the questions on the exams accordingly, thus memorizing the philosophy of the state (Yakavets, 2014, pp. 1–2).

In 1991 when Kazakhstan gained its independence, it also inherited this approach to education that had been established during the Soviet era. In order to be successful in the international arena, Kazakhstan needed both to raise the quality of the content of education to international standards and to nationalize the content of education in accordance with its own cultural and social values. Determining the new curriculum, preparing new textbooks, and printing them in sufficient numbers for nationalizing an education system infrastructure that had been created during the Soviet period could not be easily handled. In addition, teachers’ salaries remained extremely low in Kazakhstan, which also suffered from financial constraints. At the same time, these teachers had to be trained according to the new curriculum and course content. This was not an easy situation to overcome in an environment of financial inadequacies. For this reason, these targeted efforts could be realized neither easily nor quickly, with progress only able to be made gradually through many programs spread over many years (Kaplankıran, 2017, p. 41).

Raising the Quality of Educational Content to International Standards

Kazakhstan wants to rebuild its education system which had been destroyed after independence in accordance with international standards and has implemented various programs for this purpose. In 1993, the Bolashak International Scholarship Program provided successful students with the opportunity to study abroad with all expenses covered. The only condition of the scholarship was to return to Kazakhstan for at least five years of work upon graduation. The scholarship program aims to ensure that many Kazakh students receive education at international standards and to provide the qualified personnel the country needs. For the first time, 187 students from Kazakhstan were sent to study in the USA, England, Germany, and France in 1994. The scope of the program and the number of students who were awarded scholarships continued to increase in the years that followed. Today, many students who have received international education and graduated with Bolashak scholarships are successfully working in state institutions and companies in the country. In the period 1994–2020, 14,156 scholarships were awarded through the Bolashak program. Of these, 785 were allocated between 1994 and 2004 and 13,371 between 2005 and 2020. The distribution of Bolashak scholarship winners is listed by a foreign country as follows (Akhmet Yassavi University, 2021):

• UK and Ireland (45.5%)

• USA and Canada (26%)

• European countries (12.9%)

• Asian countries (8%)

• Russia (7.6%)

In conclusion, the Bolashak program has made a significant contribution to raising education in Kazakhstan to international standards. The Bolashak program has brought a major breakthrough and innovation to Kazakhstan’s internationally integrated society. The number of young people wishing to study abroad has increased, resulting in a growing number of Kazakh citizens with the highest level of education and training. The demand for learning English and the number of English speakers has also grown. The success of the Bolashak program has also been recognized by the country’s top leadership and broadened their horizons. This is important because modernizing education in Kazakhstan and bringing it up to international standards was made possible primarily because the country’s top officials understand the importance of human capital development.

With this awareness, the legal and structural reforms have continued and programs such as the State Education Development Program for 2005–2010, the State Technical and Vocational Education Development Program for 2008–2012, the Kazakhstan Children Program for 2007–2011, and the Balapan Preschool Education Program for 2010–2014 have been implemented. In order to ensure access to quality education and develop human capital in order to achieve the economic growth Kazakhstan needs, the main objectives related to the scope and content of education in the 2011–2020 Education Strategy are listed as follows (Ministry of Education and Science, 2010, pp. 2–3):

• Updating the content of preschool education and training,

• Raising mentally, physically, and spiritually developed competitive human capital in educational institutions,

• Modernizing the technical and vocational education system in line with the demands of society and integrating the system into the international education field,

• Meeting the needs of the labor market and the country’s industrial development goals,

• Ensuring lifelong education,

• Developing social responsibility, patriotism, high morality, and leadership skills in students,

• Transitioning to the 12-year education model and updating the educational content,

• Updating the structure of the technical and vocational educational content according to the demands of the country’s industrial and innovative development.

The goal of education and training at international standards targets in place of the Soviet-style education an education scope that gives importance to individuality, emphasizes diversification in education and training, and offers students the opportunity to choose a profession and progress flexibly. In addition to this, the aims have been to improve the quality of education and training by involving students more in education and training and to bring measurement and evaluation in line with Western standards.

The Prime Minister’s Office of Kazakhstan has identified the achievements made until 2020 and the work to be done in the future in the context of updating the curriculum and bringing it to international standards in the education system by 2025. In the context of the achievements, curriculum updates are emphasized to have been successfully implemented at the level of 90–100% and the free education system to have been implemented in a way to provide everyone with a profession. The main goals to be achieved by 2025 have been defined as follows (Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2019):

• Increase the level of international integration of Kazakhstan’s education system to reach a globally competitive level,

• Educate and train students on the basis of universal values,

• Increase science’s contribution to the national economy.

The steps that are planned to be implemented in order to realize these goals have also been determined. First of all, the quality of teachers will be improved. In order to achieve this, teachers’ salaries will first be raised to twice their current salary within 4 years. The next step will be to design and modernize a new teacher training system to improve the quality of teachers. Curriculum updates will continue and be completed at 100%. Improvements will also be made to school logistics. Camera surveillance and safe transportation will be provided. Awareness will be raised regarding cyber security. Efforts will be made to prevent bullying and suicide. More effective communication between schools and parents will be ensured, and efficiency will be increased regarding values-based education practices. More emphasis will be placed on sports activities. Another important effort will be to reduce the difference in the quality of education between urban and rural schools. To this end, rural schools will be provided with qualified pedagogical staff, the fee system will be changed, and rural schools will be fully supplied with teaching materials, computer hardware, and digital equipment. The construction of 114 new boarding schools in rural areas will be ensured, and physics, chemistry, and biology classrooms will be computerized. Additional resources will also be allocated from the state budget for these purposes.

Nationalization of Education

The policies Russia had implemented during the pre-independence period affected Kazakhstan’s education system. In this period, Russia intensively processed its own history and culture into the education system in order to strengthen its power. It tried to shape all Turkic republics in line with its national policies, gave special importance to the education system in order to realize this, and opened Russian schools in line with this. An education system indexed to Russian policies was established in these schools through the textbooks it prepared. During the Russian period, Marxist ideology was implemented in the education system, and religious and cultural lessons were shaped accordingly. Leaders such as Lenin and Stalin were praised, and many works of Russian literature were adapted and rewritten in accordance with political views and read to all students.

Russia not only focused on its own religious, cultural, and historical values but also designed the content of the educational system that was indexed to its own ideological policies even in the field of science. While implementing all these policies, efforts were made to bring the education system as high a level of quality as possible, to give freedom to women, and to ensure that the whole population had access to educational rights. Thus, the aim had been to establish the education system successfully. Indeed, this was achieved to a certain extent. This success was even felt in the post-independence period. Thus, when Kazakhstan declared its independence from Russia, it inherited a certain level of education system infrastructure, but this inheritance was a legacy that had moved away from its national values. Therefore, Kazakhstan not only modernized its education system but also adopted the goal of nationalization (Yıldırım & Buluç, 2022, p. 245).

More than half of the stakeholders in the field of education and training supported the work carried out within the scope of the goal of education and training at international standards. However, the fact that some stakeholders did not support the reforms and criticized them in various ways due to setbacks led to the continuation of the influence of the Soviet curriculum scope and caused setbacks in some reforms (Kalikova & Silova, 2008, pp. 143–147). However, one important component of the reforms that are aimed at bringing education and training up to international standards is the nationalized design of education and training in place of the Soviet-influenced approach to education and training. In fact, the decision was made that Kazakhstan as an independent state needed to build its own national culture.

The Russian language had been the language used in education and training in all affiliated republics during the Soviet period, including Kazakhstan. The aim of the Russian administration regarding this policy was to ensure that the Russian state and its dependent states established ties and bonded together over a common language. Indeed, the scientific and cultural values of local languages were not recognized during this period. The Russian language managed to become a common denominator for states of different ethnic origins both in education and training and in social life (Yakavets, 2014, pp. 1–2).

Some of the concepts used during the Soviet era continue to have an impact even today. For example, the Russian language differentiates between Turks in Türkiye and Turks under Russian rule, with the former being called Turok and the latter Tyurskih narodov (i.e., Turkic peoples). This distinction continues in Kazakhstan’s education system. Another example is that in order to protect communism during the Soviet period, the concept of nationalism was treated as a negative concept in the education system along the lines of racism. Today, the word ultshildyk, which is used in the Kazakhstan education system to mean nationalism, also has the negative meaning of racism (Zhumasheva, 2018, p. 23).

The influence of the Soviet era still persists in the Kazakh language, and for this reason, efforts are being made to nationalize the education system in Kazakhstan. As of 1996, the decision was made to design new textbooks. Between 1997 and 2000, decisions were made to ensure the transition from Russian to Kazakh as the language of education and to nationalize the content of social sciences courses, especially history courses (Yakavets, 2014, pp. 7–9).

While rewriting Kazakh history, the aim was to change and nationalize written history in accordance with Russian policies. While doing this, however, the common history of Russia and Kazakh society has not been rejected, because Kazakhstan does not consist of a pure Kazakh society. According to official statistics, Kazakhstan is 70.7% Kazakh, 15.2% Russian, 3.3% Uzbek, 1.9% Ukrainian, 1.5% Uyghur, 1.1% Tatar, and 1.1% German (National Bureau of Statistics, 2023). In other words, Kazakhstan is a multinational country and the homeland of many people of different ethnic backgrounds, especially Russians. Therefore, the rights of the citizens of these different ethnic backgrounds need to be protected, and these people need to unite over a common ground. World War II in particular involved a common history for Kazakhstan and Russia and has the ability to unite these peoples. For this reason, the chapters on World War II can be exemplified as not having been changed much in the history curriculum (Zhumasheva, 2018, p. 23).

Kazakhstan has paid special attention to the development of the Kazakh language in the context of the expansion of national culture. In 1997, the Law on Languages emphasized the active use of the Kazakh language in all state institutions, and the decision was made to carry out studies and implement the programs needed to spread the Kazakh language in the education system. As a result of the implemented policies, the number of schools providing education only in Kazakh or mixed languages has gradually increased, while the number of schools providing education only in Russian has gradually decreased (Bolatova, 2019, p. 52).

Kazakh language learning centers have been opened in both central and local executive bodies and universities. Compulsory language learning courses and record keeping in Kazakh language and level-based teaching of the state language in primary and secondary general education schools have been introduced. The education system, which had been mostly under the influence of Soviet Russia in the pre-independence period, has been nationalized with independence. Kazakh culture, which the Soviet period had ignored and even tried to destroy, has been given importance. Also, the language policy of teaching English was adopted, as it has become a world language alongside Russian (Yıldırım & Buluç, 2022, p. 249). In addition to these three languages, schools are also found to provide education in four languages by adding Turkish, French, or German (Bolatova, 2019, p. 62).

Since the 2016–2017 school year, two hours of English as a foreign language have been added to the curriculum of the first year of primary education. As of the 2018–2019 school year, courses such as the History of Kazakhstan and Kazakh Language and Literature have been added. Since the 2019–2020 school year, chemistry has been taught in Kazakh in schools where Kazakh is not the medium of instruction. World history and Russian language and literature are taught in Russian in schools where Russian is not the medium of instruction, and Biology, Information Technology, and Physics are taught in English in all schools (Tastanbekova, 2018, p. 90).

Kazakhstan attaches importance not only to the nationalization of education but also to its international integration. The primary goal of Kazakhstan’s education system is to raise education and training to international standards for economic development. For this purpose, international integration of education and training is sought through the policies the country implements. For this purpose, a network of special schools has been established for gifted children focusing on trilingual education. Such schools are supported, and their number is constantly increasing across the country. In this context, the Bolashak International Scholarship Program, which has been successfully implemented, contributes to increasing the number of English speakers in the country and thus contributes to the goal of a trilingual education.

One important work to be done for the nationalization of Kazakhstan’s education system is related to the alphabet it uses. During the Soviet Russian era, the alphabet was changed in order to unite all affiliated republics under a single identity. While the Cyrillic alphabet has been used in Kazakhstan since 1940, the aim is to use the Latin alphabet that most developed countries in the world use. Infrastructure works are also being carried out to ensure this transition. The aim is to make the transition by 2025 (Kaplankıran, 2017, p. 45).

Conclusions

In 1991 when Kazakhstan declared its independence from Soviet Russia, it decided that it needed to focus on its education system in order to integrate into the world, to build its own national culture, and in particular to ensure its economic development. In addition to building its own national culture, the country did not aim to create a uniform Kazakh nation in this process as had existed in the Soviet period. Instead, Kazakhstan preferred to respect the rights of other nationalities in the country and preferred multiculturalism. Since the year of independence, Kazakhstan has aimed to integrate its education system into the international arena significantly and as quickly as possible. Indeed, Kazakhstan has experienced a major economic and educational transformation since the beginning of the current century.

In the pre-independence Soviet period, Kazakhstan’s education and training system was spread throughout the country in line with the economic and political practices Russia had implemented, and almost all of the population had access to education opportunities. The level of access to educational opportunities and the quality of education were relatively high, but the education system was shaped according to the Soviet identity, away from Kazakh culture and national values. Russian has been used as the dominant language in the education system, with Kazakh as the mother tongue having remained in the background. Russian policies have also influenced the curriculum. For example, the content of History and Religion courses has been shaped in accordance with Russian policies and interests.

During the post-independence period, economic inadequacies lasting for about 20 years, especially during the first decade, had caused the infrastructure of Kazakhstan’s education system to deteriorate. For this reason, Kazakhstan had difficulty establishing an education system in accordance with its culture, history, and national values, even losing the support of a certain segment of the population. For this reason, the influence of Russia in Kazakhstan’s education system has continued until today, albeit partially.

Since the 2000s, however, international integration has become more effective in Kazakhstan. Both the financial contribution of international financial resources to the education system and Kazakhstan's implementation of policies that emphasize integration into the international education system as an alternative to the Russian-influenced education system have yielded successful results. In the education system, a trilingual education system has been adopted as early as primary education, and the language of education is structured in Kazakh, Russian, and English. For higher education, the Bolashak International Scholarship Program was implemented for international education, and well-educated individuals who speak Western languages, especially English, were brought to the country.

Kazakhstan wants to rebuild its education system in accordance with international standards, and the main goals it wants to set can be summarized as international quality in education, openness to innovation and continuous development, conformity with its own cultural values, and preparing individuals for social life and love for the homeland. In addition, the rights of Kazakhstan’s citizens with other ethnic origins, especially Russian citizens, have been respected, and the right to education in their mother tongue has been recognized. In the post-independence period, Kazakhstan has attached importance to building its own national culture. To this end, history books have been rewritten with an emphasis on the Kazakh history and identity were emphasized. However, due to Kazakhstan having citizens from many different ethnic backgrounds, especially Russians, historical events from the Soviet period such as the heroic events of World War II that had a unifying role for citizens of different ethnic backgrounds, have been left as they were written and remain unchanged.

Kazakhstan has built its education system upon the triple pillars of Kazakh, Russian, and English. Kazakhstan has benefited from the positive aspects of the education system inherited from Russia and also started to build its own national culture and implemented innovation in the education system through international integration. Thus, Kazakhstan’s education system has been taking firm steps forward in its international integration in accordance with the national and cultural values of the education system, the enacted laws, new programs and methods that have been implemented, and the policy documents that have been created. In this way, Kazakhstan is making continuous progress in its economic development and global competitiveness thanks to the education system it has developed.