Science-driven economy is impossible without an effective education system: Nazarbayev

Kazakhstan is going to focus on hard sciences to further enhance the country's growing economy, Tengrinews reports citing President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Last week at the anniversary forum of Bolashak International Scholarship, President Nazarbayev summarized 20 years of the education program and talked about the effect it had on the lives of talented middle-class youth and the development of cardiac surgery in Kazakhstan in particular. The President emphasized the importance of focusing the education scholarship on development of hard science and engineering in Kazakhstan. “Technical professions, biotechnology and medicine are our key priorities now. That is why we will be focusing on these fields. Things will be changing as time goes by, and not all the countries will be able to retain their current positions. The competition will be very intense, some countries will rise and some will fall. A champion should train to win the next Olympics and may never slumber,” said Nazarbayev. He added, that the future of a person is determined by his or her aspirations and determination, not by a diploma of a prestigious university. “We have opened new universities in our country, but we will continue the Bolashak Program. Today it is not that important which university one graduates from, what matters is what kind of person one is. Over the past 20 years we have been working hard to ensure a future worth living for our younger generation. I want to encourage you to keep thinking about strengthening the independence of our country, as this is the centuries-old dream of our nation and our great treasure,” said the President. Recognizing the importance of education, Nazarbayev called Kazakhstan to focus both on development of sciences in general and on training highly qualified teachers. “Creation of a science-driven economy is impossible without an effective education system. As you can see, we are improving our education at all levels, even in primary schools. We have to train future teachers. For instance, in Finland only the best graduates are selected to be teachers. In Singapore teachers undergo a hundred-hour training course, while in Japan teachers are elected for training by their whole towns,” added the Head of the State. Acknowledging the latest developments in the local health care, the President encouraged the citizens to think about the future of medicine. “Brain transplantation and artificial blood will become a reality soon. The world is standing in the doorway of transitioning towards preventative health care, where doctors will be able to clearly analyze a patient's heredity, identify the possible illnesses and prevent them,” said the President of Kazakhstan. The President brought up examples of foreign scientific discoveries such as, contact lenses that supply the patient with a prescribe dose of medication. Besides, scientists are working on the development of diagnostic electronic tools for personal use. “These trends are promising for Kazakhstan, too. Our young professionals gave join these researches and be at the forefront of the global science development. The one who succeeds will become famous. This fame will lead to greatness,” concluded Nazarbayev. By Baubek Konyrov