Purpose The purpose of this study is analysing the experince of Kazakhstan in implementing distance/online learning during pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all areas of social and economic life, including education. More than 1.3 billion students worldwide have switched to online/distance learning. In Kazakhstan, more than 6 million active participants in the educational process are navigating this online migration. There is significant criticism of the process among the general population, demanding scholarly investigations into the government’s actions. Design/methodology/approach This paper examines the re-organization of education in Kazakhstan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods to uncover this included an express survey of 31,300 households, in interviews with 65 parents, 15 children, 9 school/college/university administration and teachers and 15 representatives of the Government of Kazakhstan, and in analyses of statistical and regulatory documents. Findings This study finds that the government of Kazakhstan has faced significant issues in the transition to distance/online learning due to weak internet infrastructure and a lack of effective interaction with all stakeholders, as well as biased statistical and analytical information. Originality/value The pandemic has functioned as a test of government readiness for crisis and has exposed several fault lines where official development policy has been ineffective. While the “gap” between policy and outcome is often attributed to failures in local implementation, the unique factors at play here – an interested citizenry and committed teachers – show that considerably more work has to be put into bringing “best practices” from developed countries to developing ones.
This article considers the Republic of Kazakhstan's internal intellectual migration within the scope of the Bolashak International Scholarship Program which aims to train highly-killed specialists at the best universities in the world. The analysis covers mechanisms of public investment in training of highly-qualified specialists, regulatory measures to promote employment opportunities nationally and the geographical scope of internal-intellectual migration of Bolashak graduates. A survey of Bolashak graduates assesses the country’s labour market capacity and detects factors affecting migration among Kazakh youth. The study showed that most graduates of the Bolashak program want to contribute to the development of the country, but they are not satisfied with the level of wages in Kazakhstan. Migratory moods were noted only among graduates aged 23-28 years, while older graduates aged 29 to 35 still preferred to stay at home. Moreover, among the first group of graduates, the priority was given to the standard of living in the country of destination rather than professional opportunities. Graduates from the second group were more interested in career prospects rather than in the standard of living in the country of destination. This research was funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant No. АР05136246).
The article examines the issues of emigration of the population of Kazakhstan, the reasons and factors influencing the decision of citizens to leave the country. The analysis was based on the fall 2018 sociological poll results, which comprised responses from 3,215 Kazakhstani citizens and in-depth interviews with 143 experts in different civil service, science, education, and economics branches. The results thus obtained showed that labor migration predominated: people were driven by the desire to earn more, to realize their professional potential, to receive better education and professional training. We have also discovered that the low quality of education and lack of favorable conditions for the development of the younger generation are the two other causes of the outflow of Kazakhstanis from their homeland. The state is not doing enough to persuade young specialists and scientists to remain in the country, which explains the gradual increase of intellectual migration and brain-drain. The results brought us to a conclusion that certain political factors, including poorly protected legitimate rights, corruption and certain related reasons, are fairly important for those determined to leave. Many of those who are ready to leave, the older generation in particular, are kept back by family and friendly ties and the habitual life style.
Information and Communication technologies (ICT) play a significant role in the educational process becoming a powerful tool of interaction between teachers and students; computer applications are used to present useful teaching resources and to improve knowledge of students. This article aims to examine the educational policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan within the framework of Information and Communication technology implementation. In this regard, we analyze the level of computerization of schools and universities in Kazakhstan, the teachers’ competencies, and computer literacy of population. Based on data and information from official documents, reports, and official sources of education, we concluded that the Government of Kazakhstan tries to create the “digital society” and to increase the quality of education using ICT. The results of the analysis reveal that Kazakhstan make greater effort on using ICT in the education process and the policy is aimed at increasing the number of computers in schools, opening new specialties at the universities related to information and communication technologies, as well as enhancing computer literacy of the population. However, due to the lack of funding and the comprehensive work on the training and retraining of teachers, the low speed of the Internet in some regions of the country, this process needs to be improved.
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