Kazakhstan is bracing for major reforms in the education system following President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s “100 concrete steps” program. One of the such reforms involves transfer to the English language. In addition to using English as the official language of business conduct in the Astana Financial Center, Nazarbayev envisioned transferring higher education from Kazakh and Russian into English.
Kazakhstan is bracing for major reforms in the education system following President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s “100 concrete steps” program. One of the such reforms involves transfer to the English language. In addition to using English as the official language of business conduct in the Astana Financial Center, Nazarbayev envisioned transferring higher education from Kazakh and Russian into English.
Higher education in English, according to the program proposed by the President, will prepare highly competitive specialists and increase the export potential of the educational sector in Kazakhstan.
During an American-Kazakh business forum in Astana, Kazakh Vice-Minister of Investments and Development Yerlan Sagadiev suggested an aggressive transfer to English at higher educational institutions of Kazakhstan. “The decision to transfer all higher education to English, including Masters and Doctorate degrees has been made. If the program is implemented in its full aggressive force, it will change everything. The program will create a new human capital and change the marketability of the work force in Kazakhstan. We believe that it is necessary to develop human capital facilitate growth of the middle class,” Sagadiev said.
Reporting by Renat Tashkinbayev, writing by Gyuzel Kamalova