During the meeting, the Head of State listened to the report on the actualization of the 2016-2019 State Program for Education and Science Development.
Nursultan Nazarbayev noted the special role of the education system in implementing national political, economic and social reforms.
- In all the in-progress program documents, including this year's Address to Kazakhstan’s Nation, New Opportunities in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Rukhani Zhangyru, and in the course of the unfolding digitalization, a key role belongs to education. The key of successful implementation of all these initiatives is a quality education, the President of Kazakhstan said.
The Head of State has brought into focus timing of the on-going reforms in the country's education system and separately emphasized the process of transition to teaching certain subjects in English.
- The subjects in English will be in the higher forms. Not having educated children in English now, in the future we will not be able to provide full-fledged training. This is a call of the time, which parents should understand. At the same time, we should not forget about learning the Kazakh language, Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
During the meeting, the Minister of Education and Science presented information on the progress of the tasks assigned to the Ministry within the state and sectoral programs.
Yerlan Sagadiev reported on the interim results of work on improving the system of pre-school education.
- In 2018, the coverage of children with preschool education will be 95 percent. Basically, this has been achieved through construction of private kindergartens. Since 2019, there will be unified standards for early development. It is also worth noting that now it is possible to wait for a place in a kindergarten using mobile devices, the Minister of Education and Science said.
In addition, E. Sagadiyev informed the President of Kazakhstan about the results of transforming schools to the updated content based on the experience of Nazarbayev intellectual schools.
The Minister has also provided information on the progress of teacher training for individual subjects in English.
- In 2016, teaching in English was by only 2,000 teachers. Last year the applications for taking relevant courses were filed by 11.5 thousand people, about 3 thousand of them completed the course and began to teach. 8 thousand have continued their education and are moving to the required level. Thus, in 2019, 13.5 thousand school teachers will begin to teach four subjects in English, E. Sagadiyev said.
At the end of the meeting, the Head of State has given a number of specific instructions.
