$302 million allocated for financing of education in Almaty in 2012

45.4 billion tenge ($302 million) has been allocated for financing of education in Almaty in 2012, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Almaty Akim (Mayor) Akhmetzhan Yessimov as saying at the plenary meeting of education workers called Modernization of educations system as the main direction of high-quality growth of human capital. “We are increasing financing of the education system. This year we have allocated 45.4 billion. Last year the sum stood at 38 billion ($253 million). The increase made 14 percent. We have increased financing of our education 1.5-fold in the last 3 years,” Yessimov said at the meeting. He also noted that new educational facilities were being built: 9 more schools would be built in Almaty in 2012. Akim also stressed the level of salaries of Almaty teachers. According to him, the average salary in Almaty is 120 thousand tenge ($800), while teachers earn twice less. “60 thousand tenge ($400) is a good salary for Almaty oblast, Zhambyl oblast and South-Kazakhstan oblast because the average salary in these regions is about the same. Almaty city, however, has a higher life level and higher costs,” Akim said. According to him, the teachers are forced to take additional work, which gives the grounds for growth of corruption. “It is good that the state program provides for motivation, but we are very interested how it will be implemented,” he said.