Kazakhstan increases funding for education

Kazakhstan, Astana, June 18 / Trend D. Mukhtarov / In Kazakhstan, the funding for education from the state budget in 2011 increased by 203 billion tenge, amounting to more than one trillion tenge ($ 1 - 147.8 tenge), Minister of Education and Science Bakytzhan Zhumagulov said on Monday. "Funding for education from the state budget in 2011 amounted to 3.8 per cent of the GDP," Zhumagulov said, speaking in the Majilis (lower chamber of parliament). He said the important task of the new state programme of education is the introduction by 2015 at all levels of per capita funding mechanism. "I must say that the introduction of per capita funding in secondary education is a revolutionary step. First, because it is the sphere of mass education and secondly it has an impact on the social well-being of people and thirdly, opportunities for the development of competition and public-private partnership in the area of secondary education are created," he said. The minister recalled that the global experience of the USA, Sweden, Denmark, Canada and other countries shows that per capita funding is very effective. It allows to it raise and equalise the quality of schooling in all regions, between urban and rural areas. "We should have the same. In addition, introduction of a funded educational accumulative system provided for by the state programme is of importance. In 2012-2013, we must conduct large scale work on the introduction of this system with the involvement of educational institutions, commercial banks and the public," Zhumagulov said. At the same time, he said, the system is in any case not a substitute for free to the public grant system, but an additional opportunity to expand access to education. "In a world such systems have proven its effectiveness and are actively used by the population. For example, the U.S. programme '529 plan' allows citizens to accumulate funds for higher education and now the programme operates with assets of more than $100 billion," the minister said. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az