Kazakh Senate Speaker suggests national program to increase reading skills among schoolers

Decline in reading literacy among Kazakhstani schoolers could be a serious threat to formation of skills of future specialists, Kazakh Senate Speaker Maulen Ashimbayev said, Kazinform News Agency cites the upper chamber of the country’s parliament.

As the Kazakh Senate chairman pointed out, Kazakhstani schoolers are falling behind their peers from the OECD countries according to the PISA rankings. According to Ashimbayev, such a trend coupled with excessive social networks addition could lead to losing key life skills such as professionalism.

The Kazakh Senate chairman expressed concern over the lack of dynamics in the performance of Kazakhstani schoolers according to the OECD PISA 2022 rankings.

In particular, the current situation with the reading literacy is even more alarming. Our schoolers fall behind their peers from other countries by 3 years, he said during the speech of first vice minister of enlightenment Natalya Zhumadildaeva while discussing the law on education, mentorship and safety of children taking into account the international rankings.

Ashimbayev went on to suggest the need for a special program aimed at increasing the reading skills.

There may a need to develop a national program to develop reading literacy using the experience of the leading nations, he concluded.