Kazakhstan Plans Education Reform in Drive for Competitiveness

"Almost all successful modern states which are actively integrated in the international economic system have staked on an ‘economy of the mind’. To create this, we have to primarily develop our own human capital," Nazarbayev said in a February 28 state-of-the-nation speech, delivered to parliament.

In particular, Nazarbayev pointed to the need for modern education techniques -- including online learning and educational TV -- to provide Kazakhstan with a work force able to develop "an innovation-based economy."

He pledged to open 100 new schools, and called for a system to assess teaching and learning and a method to accredit educational institutions in line with international standards.

"The main criterion of success in education reform is achieving a level whereby any citizen of our country can, after receiving an education and qualification, become a specialist in demand in any country in the world," said Nazarbayev.

Kazakhstan inherited its education system from the Soviet era, gaining a solid base and some good educational facilities but, at the same time, a structure designed around learning facts rather than critical thinking and one in which corrupt practices are reportedly rife.

"I have to say that the students... find this [Western] system a little different," said Dr. Ustina Markus, director of General Education at the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research (KIMEP) in Almaty, which instructs students in English using the US education model.

Markus points to common failings in other educational institutions in Kazakhstan. "The biggest problems I’ve been hearing about [are] simply cases of cheating. At KIMEP we are not allowed to give oral exams, where most abuse takes place… [Cheating] is just normal here [in Kazakhstan]," Markus told EurasiaNet.

Other problems identified by Markus within Kazakhstan’s tertiary education system include the practice of giving gifts to teaching staff, which encourages corruption and nepotism. These factors breed a lack of competition in the education system, which in turn breeds an uncompetitive workforce, observers say.

This was not the first time Nazarbayev had called for action to make Kazakhstan’s education system more competitive. Speaking to parliament in January, he demanded an end to the rubberstamping of degrees, in a tacit admission that they are not always earned through study. "Our system of higher education and system of defending dissertations has remained untouched since Soviet times," he complained to deputies.

Addressing higher education specialists in 2006, Nazarbayev was "quite explicit that Soviet education really wasn’t up to the task," commented Dr. Dennis Soltys, a KIMEP professor who lectures in comparative education.

Another criticism levelled at Kazakhstan’s education system is that it is not designed around encouraging the analytical skills that a modern economy requires, with the national testing system for school leavers testing knowledge rather than critical thinking.

"[Critical thinking] is the one thing you see all the time really lacking; that is one thing that goes back to the Soviet era… That is probably one of their weakest areas," Markus said.

In a further bid to make the workforce more competitive, the government also seeks to boost the role of English in Kazakhstan. Nazarbayev proposed a new project called Trinity of Languages, with an ultimate view to making the country trilingual in the state language of Kazakh, in Russian, "the language of inter-ethnic communication," and in English, "the language of successful integration into the global economy."

The target is ambitious, says Markus, but the goal of training graduates to work in English is attainable: "I don’t know if Kazakhstan will be truly trilingual, but I think it would be able to produce a good-sized turnout of graduates who would be functional in English."

Kazakhstan’s students are also gaining unprecedented exposure to learning abroad via the Bolashak scholarship scheme, which sends 3,000 students annually to study at foreign universities.

The rallying call for education reform came packaged with an urge to enhance Kazakhstan’s competitiveness in the global economy. Nazarbayev listed the country’s territorial size, geographic location and natural resources as among its competitive advantages, and exhorted listeners to put these advantages to work in consolidating Kazakhstan’s position in foreign markets, improving the quality of its goods and services and seeking out niches for them. Kazakhstan must join the World Trade Organization on advantageous terms as it seeks to complete talks this year, Nazarbayev added. "We can turn Kazakhstan into a regional locomotive of economic development -- and it already is in many ways -- and make it a successful player in the world economy," he said, singling out the markets of Russia, China and the Caspian and Black Sea regions as promising.

KIMEP’s Dr. Soltys, who terms Nazarbayev "a pragmatic, technocratic leader," contends that Kazakhstan’s elite has a stake in making sure such a bid succeeds. "Kazakhstan or the people around Nazarbayev want to enter the global market because they control oil," he said. "It’s the personal preferences of the executive-dominated elite that motivates the policy of the country – the right policy for perhaps not the right reason."

Nazarbayev, however, was at pains to point out that oil-fueled economic growth is being used as an engine of social assistance. The Kazakhstani leader pledged to spend some $900 million on the underprivileged starting in 2008, including increased child subsidies and a 35-percent rise in the basic pension. He also pledged to open 100 new hospitals.

The question now is whether Nazarbayev’s latest reform drive will actually succeed. Both Markus and Soltys argue that it can. "[I]f you have all this agreement from the top and acquiescence from the bottom and all this wealth in the country, it’s bound to work," said Dr. Soltys. Agreed Markus: "[I]t looks like there is [commitment] on this."