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Kazakstan
Education
The constitution of 1995 specifies that education through secondary
school is mandatory and free, and that citizens have the further
right to compete for free education in the republic's institutions
of higher learning. Private, paid education is permitted but remains
subject to state control and supervision.
In 1994 Kazakstan had 8,575 elementary and secondary schools
(grades one through twelve) attended by approximately 3.2 million
students, and 244 specialized secondary schools with about 222,000
students. In 1992 about 51 percent of eligible children were attending
some 8,500 preschools in Kazakstan. In 1994 some 272,100 students
were enrolled in the republic's sixty-one institutes of higher
learning. Fifty-four percent of the students were Kazak, and 31
percent were Russian.
The educational situation since independence is somewhat difficult
to judge because of incomplete information. The republic has attempted
to overhaul both the structure of its education system and much
of its substance, but the questions of what should be taught and
in what manner continue to loom large. A particularly sensitive
and unresolved issue is what the language of instruction should
be, given the almost equal distribution of the population between
ethnic Kazaks and ethnic Russians. In 1994 most instruction still
was in Russian because Kazak-language textbooks and Kazak teachers
were in short supply. Enrollment was estimated to be 92 percent
of the total age-group in both primary and secondary grades, but
only 8 percent in the postsecondary age-group.
Serious shortages in funding and resources have hindered efforts
to revamp the education system inherited from the Soviet Union.
Even in 1990, more than half the republic's schools were operating
on two and even three shifts per day; since then, hundreds of
schools, especially preschools, have been converted to offices
or stores. Elementary- and secondary-school teachers remain badly
underpaid; in 1993 more than 30,000 teachers (or about one-seventh
of the 1990 teaching staff) left education, many of them to seek
more lucrative employment.
Despite the obstacles, efforts have been made to upgrade the
education system, especially at the highest level. Kazakstani
citizens still can enroll in what once were the premier Soviet
universities, all of which are now in foreign countries, in particular
Russia and Ukraine. In the mid-1990s, however, such opportunities
have become rare and much more expensive. This situation has forced
the upgrading of existing universities in Kazakstan, as well as
the creation of at least one new private university, Al-Farabi
University, formerly the S.M. Kirov State University, in Almaty.
The largest institution of higher learning in Kazakstan, Al-Farabi
had 1,530 teachers and about 14,000 students in 1994. A second
university, Qaraghandy State University, had about 8,300 students
in 1994. In addition, technical secondary schools in five cities--Aqmola,
Atyrau, Pavlodar, Petropavl (formerly Petropavlovsk), and Taldyqorghan
(formerly Taldy-Kurgan)--have been reclassified as universities,
increasing regional access to higher education. Altogether, in
1994 Kazakstan had thirty-two specialized institutes of higher
learning, offering programs in agriculture, business and economics,
medicine, music, theater, foreign languages, and a variety of
engineering and technical fields. In the area of technical education,
the republic has taken aggressive advantage of offers from foreign
states to educate young Kazaks. In 1994 about 3,000 young people
were studying in various foreign countries, including the United
States.
One trend that particularly worries republic administrators
is the pronounced "Kazakification" of higher education, as the
republic's Russians either send their children to schools across
the Russian border or find it impossible to enroll them in local
institutions. Kazakstan's law forbids ethnic quotas, but there
is evidence of prejudicial admittance patterns. The class that
entered university in 1991, for example, was 73.1 percent Kazak
and only 13.1 percent Russian.
Data as of March 1996
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