Meeting of the Minister of Education and Science, Askhat Aimagambetov with students of  Abai KazNPU

On March 20, 2022, the Minister of Education and Science Askhat Aimagambetov met with students of Abai KazNPU. It was attended by the university rector Darkhan Bilyalov and about 70 students of 1-3 courses of pedagogical specialities.

The event was held in a format of free communication, without reports and formalism. The Minister talked about changes in the field of education and training of future teachers. According to him, in recent years, the requirements for school leavers wishing to pursue pedagogical studies at higher education institutions have been increased. With the aim to attract the best entrants to the pedagogical majors, the UNT threshold score was raised from 50 to 75 and the size of scholarships for students being future teachers was increased.

In addition, Aimagambetov explained the need for mandatory national proficiency testing for students majoring in pedagogy and stressed the importance of implementing professional certification for future teachers. The Minister stressed the need for certification of graduates of pedagogical universities, i.e. a young professional can be hired only after passing the national qualification test. He stressed that this innovation is aimed at improving the quality of staff: the qualification test allows you to determine the level of knowledge of graduates in the subject and teaching methods.

Effective measures taken by the ministry are aimed at motivating students not so much to get a diploma as to get a quality education. For the teacher training institutes, along with quality education, the responsibility for the level of qualification and employment of their graduates will increase. Those whose knowledge and skills are inadequate for teaching children will not be allowed to work in educational establishments, Aimagambetov said. Such a result affects the withdrawal of licences from pedagogical universities. What matters here is the quality of professionals, not the number of graduates. By sending the best graduates to schools, he said, the quality of education as a whole could be improved.

The minister also spoke in detail about changes in the promotion of teachers, the mechanism for hiring them to schools, stressing that this process must be transparent and about the employment prospects of graduates of pedagogical specialties. «A lot of comprehensive work is underway to develop the sector. Thanks to the support of the Head of State, K.K. Tokayev, we have adopted a Law on the Status of Teachers, which provides a set of measures to protect the rights of workers in our sector and reduce their working hours and loads unrelated to their core business», the minister said.

During the meeting, the students acted at ease, freely asking questions and receiving comprehensive answers. At the end of the conversation with future teachers the Minister said that the role of teachers in building the new Kazakhstan is very high, so teacher training universities need to improve the quality of education, and students need to be active in student life and use all opportunities for quality education.