The role of school education in the life of a country and society cannot be overstated. It is instrumental in developing the skills, cultural values, and ideological foundations of both the country and its citizens. Consequently, the development of the education system should be among the government’s top priorities, on par with such areas as healthcare and national security. However, the advancement of the education system is a complex and dynamic challenge. Even developed countries often struggle to manage it effectively. For developing nations, the task is further complicated by limited resources and insufficient institutional capacity. This deficit, as well as poorly made political or economic decisions in the education sector, can lead to systemic issues that worsen over time, requiring greater effort from future generations to resolve. In Kazakhstan, as a result of dynamic and sometimes inconsistent government policies in the field of education, the country has developed its own unique experience, including both positive and negative aspects. Moreover, the national education system faces several systemic problems that originate in the early stages of its development. Currently, experts identify several key challenges in Kazakhstan’s school education sector: underfunding, a shortage of qualified teachers, and significant regional and socioeconomic disparities (Yelubayeva et al., 2023; OECD, 2020).
Underfunding of public schools in Kazakhstan also contributes to the other mentioned challenges, and a positive shift in this area could have a beneficial impact across the entire education sector. Therefore, it is reasonable to examine the state’s education funding policies in detail. Kazakhstan serves as a vivid example of a developing country that has actively reflected on the role and importance of education since gaining independence. However, due to the turbulent period in the early years of independence and relatively low oil prices, education remained a secondary priority for many years. From 1995 to 2005, government spending on education declined from 4% of GDP to 2.3% of GDP, marking the lowest point in the country’s history (World Bank, n.d.). This period was marked by a reduction in the number of educational institutions at all levels, mass dismissal of professionals, and a general decline in the sector. For example, in 1993, more than 30,000 general education school teachers left the profession due to poor working conditions, primarily low wages (Bilimal, 2017).
As the country continued to develop and external economic conditions improved, the education sector also strengthened, receiving increased funding. By 2012, education spending had risen to 3.9% of GDP, nearly returning to the 1995 level. However, in absolute terms, the difference was significant, as the country’s GDP had grown more than tenfold by 2012, reaching 208 billion USD (World Bank, n.d.). Subsequently, the education sector experienced a decline in spending, which dropped to 3.2% of GDP by 2018. During this time, the country’s GDP also decreased compared to 2012, resulting in a noticeable reduction in education funding. The reasons may include the drop in oil revenues in 2014, primarily caused by external factors (Stocker et al., 2018), as well as a shift in the budget structure due to large investments in infrastructure and the EXPO-2017 project.
In recent years, starting in 2019, funding for the sector has been gradually recovering, reaching a peak of 4.5% in 2022, which is the latest year for which data is available from the World Bank. However, according to government plans for 2025, spending on education and science is expected to reach 7% of GDP (Valentinov, 2024). This level of education expenditure would, for the first time in the country’s history, exceed the OECD average, which stood at 5.2% of GDP in 2021 (The Global Economy.com, n.d.). Sustaining such a level of investment in the long term could significantly improve the prospects of education in Kazakhstan and, if funds are allocated effectively, help address one of the most persistent systemic issues in the sector. However, given current global economic shocks, including trade wars and declining oil prices, there is a risk that these ambitious education plans may be scaled back.
The academic performance of schoolchildren is directly correlated with the level of education funding in a country, a connection supported by external research. One of the most widely recognized international assessments of school education systems is the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted by the OECD since 1997. It tests 15-year-old students in three core areas: mathematics, science, and reading (OECD, n.d.). Kazakhstan first participated in PISA in 2009, and the initial results were disappointing – Kazakhstani students ranked 59th out of 69 countries. The next assessment, conducted in 2012, showed notable progress, with Kazakhstan rising to 45th place out of 65 participants. However, the 2015 results were annulled for Kazakhstan due to issues with representativeness – too large a share of students from Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) had participated, skewing the outcomes and rendering them unfit for objectively evaluating the overall school education system.
In 2018, Kazakhstan experienced a dramatic drop in student performance across all disciplines: a 37-point decrease in mathematics, 59 points in science, and 40 points in reading. This decline may be partially attributed to PISA’s shift to computer-based testing. However, this in itself highlights the low level of digital literacy among Kazakhstani students, who, despite numerous initiatives to equip classrooms with technology, struggled to use digital tools effectively. The most recent assessment in 2022 produced mixed results: in reading, Kazakhstani students recorded their lowest-ever score of 386 points, one point lower than in the poor-performing year of 2018; in mathematics, 2022 marked the second-best performance after 2012, with a similar trend in science disciplines (OECD, 2023). Nevertheless, Kazakhstan’s relative position in the global ranking improved, reaching 51st out of 81 countries. This can be explained by a general worldwide decline in scores caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to temporary school closures, shifts to remote learning, and widespread disruption in education systems—even in more developed countries (Demombynes et al., 2024). Therefore, the 2022 results should also be interpreted with caution, taking into account the influence of external factors.
The next round of PISA testing is already underway as of March this year, and the results are expected to become available no earlier than late 2025 or early 2026. This upcoming assessment is anticipated to offer a more “clean” measurement of the current state of Kazakhstan’s education system and will serve as an indicator of the effectiveness of recent reforms. So far, PISA results—excluding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic—have generally correlated with the periods of increase and decline in national education funding discussed earlier. The 2012 results, coinciding with a local peak in education spending, showed improvement over those from 2009, while the 2018 results reflected the downturn in funding that occurred after 2012.
Inequality is another key and serious issue in Kazakhstan’s school education system (Nurbaev, 2021), and it continues to deepen. Numerous factors have contributed to the emergence and exacerbation of this issue, not all of which are purely economic—many also stem from political decisions. Projects such as Nazarbayev University (NU) and the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) have consistently signaled that the state prioritizes elite-level education for a narrow segment of students over a more equitable distribution of available resources across all types of schools. On average, NIS receives three times more funding than regular public schools.
Another indicator of inequality is the ongoing closure of small-size schools. “Small-size schools (SSS) are schools with no parallel classes, a small student body, and, most often, combined classes where students from different grades are taught together” (Nurbaev, 2021, 8). Maintaining such schools is costly for the state, as the per-student cost in SSS can range from 1 to 3 million tenge, compared to approximately 200,000 tenge in urban schools. However, despite their economic inefficiency, SSS are often the only accessible educational institutions for many students in rural areas of the country. The government’s policy of optimizing expenditures by closing or consolidating small rural schools began in 1993 during a period of acute financial shortage and continues to this day, despite the radically improved financial situation.
This approach, which emphasizes improving the quality of education for a narrow segment of students, has its merits. However, international experience suggests that a more equitable distribution of resources across the entire education system is more beneficial for long-term national development (OECD, 2015). Currently, there is positive momentum from the government in addressing the issue of inequality in school education, as evidenced by new support programs and plans to build schools in rural areas (Primeminister.kz, 2024). The outcomes of these programs, expected in the coming years, will reveal how committed the government truly is to achieving greater regional and socioeconomic equity in the country’s education sector.
The issue of staff shortages in education has been relevant in the country since independence and became more serious in its early years when a large number of teachers left the profession to improve their financial situation (Kaydarova, 2016). However, after the year 2000, there was steady growth in the number of teachers in general education schools, increasing from 276,343 in 2000 to 406,631 in 2024, while a decrease in teacher numbers was observed only between 2005 and 2008 and in 2016 (Bureau of National Statistics, n.d.). At the same time, the number of students was also growing. According to government statistics, in 2000, there were 12 students per teacher in general education schools, while by 2011 this number had dropped to 8, and by 2024 it rose again to 10 students per teacher. Despite this relatively balanced student-to-teacher ratio, there was still a shortage of 4,000 teachers in 2024, half of whom are needed in rural areas (24.kz, 2024). This shortage exists even though the number of grants and the size of scholarships for teacher education programs are increasing (DKnews, 2024). One possible reason is that about half of graduates from pedagogical universities do not work in their profession, as the working conditions for teachers, especially in rural areas, remain unattractive (Bilimdinews, 2022). At present, the government is trying to solve the problem of staff shortages by improving working conditions for teachers and through digitalization programs that aim to provide students with broader access to online education (Kyun, n.d.).
In addition to the teacher shortage, Kazakhstan also faces a serious problem with school managers — as of 2025, the country lacks 740 school principals, while only 9% of principals in the existing 7,000 public schools have a high professional qualification category (Iskakova, 2025). This issue was overlooked for a long time, and the first large-scale training program for principals, “1,000 Leaders of Change in Education,” only began in 2023 and has not yet shown effective results.
Overall, it can be observed that the approaches to the development of the education system in Kazakhstan have evolved over time, and so has the system itself. Some of the solutions demonstrate effectiveness, while others require further analysis and reevaluation. While change is a continuous process, hopefully, some solid results can be demonstrated in the coming years regarding the current systemic problems of the secondary education system.
References:
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Note: The views expressed in this blog are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the Institute’s editorial policy.