Every schoolchild in Kazakhstan should speak Kazakh by 2020

Every Kazakhstan schoolchild should be fluent in the Kazakh language by 2020, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Vice-Minister of Education and Science Makhmetgali Sarybekov as saying. “President Nazarbayev has clearly stated that having 100 percent of Kazakhstan school graduates speak the Kazakh language by 2020 is a strategic goal. This is the key leverage to solving the language issue and a responsible task for the education sector,” Vice-Minister said at the annual August conference in Astana. Meanwhile, according to Sarybekov, development of other languages is also important. “Russian, English and languages of other Kazakhstan’s ethnic groups will be developed as well,” Sarybekov said. Kazakhstan Education Ministry has set a task to increase the number of multilingual schools with education in three languages from 33 to 700. “The plan is to start teaching foreign language from the 1st grade (7-y.o. kids) in 2013-2014 school year,” Director of the Department of Higher and Post-University Education of Kazakhstan Ministry of Education and Science Fatima Zhakypova said at the meeting called Multilingual Education in Kazakhstan: Strategy and Development. By Gulnara Zhandagulova