Kindergarten enrollment has plummeted by a factor of five within a span of six years.
Modernizing Kindergartens: A New Era for Preschool Education in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan's kindergarten landscape is undergoing a significant facelift. As of 2019, over 10,000 kindergartens catering to 892,000 children were in operation. This shift, according to the government press service, marks a transition from mini-centers to full-fledged kindergartens with robust infrastructure.
The process towards this transformation hasn't been without hiccups. In the past, parents grappled with complex procedures, territorial imbalances, murky enrollment systems, and fictitious enrollments, especially in urban areas. However, the advent of digital services, child accounting automation, and transparent service provisioning mechanisms are gradually rectifying these issues.
The new system issues parents a voucher, an individual "certificate" that can be used in any kindergarten that meets the required standards, be it state or private. This move extends parental choices, fosters competition amongst institutions, and enhances the quality of services. Furthermore, it eliminates redundancies and fictitious lists, leading to savings of approximately 27 billion tenge.
By the end of 2024, 93.1% of children aged 2 to 6 were engaged in kindergarten education and training. The target for 2025 is set at 95%, with a long-term goal of 100% coverage by 2028. This objective stems from President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's ambitious election program, "Just Kazakhstan - for everyone and for each. Now and forever."
The government proudly acknowledges Kazakhstan's steady progress in the realm of preschool education. Sequential reforms, the reliance on digitization, voucher financing, and a focus on accessibility are streamlining the system and making it more family-oriented.
In the past, the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan reported onwork done to safeguard children's rights and enhance preschool and school education:
Among the trends observed in global education systems, we see a shift towards systemic reforms for equity, infrastructure rehabilitation, capacity-building, expanding access to quality facilities, particularly for vulnerable groups, digitalization efforts, targeted funding via inclusivelending mechanisms like vouchers, remedying learning losses, teacher training enhancements, and addressing underfunding, teacher capacity gaps, and equity concerns in low-income and rural areas. These trends provide insights into Kazakhstan's potential direction in preschool education reforms. However, for more specific details, relevant policy documents or recent World Bank/OECD reports focused on Central Asia would be advantageous.
I, as a parent, have benefited from the new voucher system in Kazakhstan's kindergartens. This system allows me to choose from a variety of kindergartens that meet the required standards, be they state or private.
The imbalance in kindergarten infrastructure in urban and rural areas is gradually being addressed through the digitalization and automation of services.
The government's reliance on digitization, voucher financing, and a focus on accessibility has made the preschool education system more streamlined and family-oriented.
To further enhance the quality of education and self-development offered in kindergartens, the government is working on addressing underfunding, teacher capacity gaps, and equity concerns in low-income and rural areas. General news and recent World Bank/OECD reports focused on Central Asia provide insights into Kazakhstan's potential direction in preschool education reforms.
