State supports training young people ? implementation of ?Nur Otan? Party?s platform

ASTANA. January 9. KAZINFORM /Muratbek Makulbekov/ ?The state should make every effort to let all young Kazakhstanis have access to good education and worthy work with an opportunity for self-fulfillment?, ?Nur Otan? Party?s platform For prosperity of Kazakhstan and welfare of Kazakhstanis: how we can improve the life of every citizen of our country reads.

The year 2009 started for ?Nur Otan? with the fulfillment of the tasks of the Head of the State and Leader of the Party on raise in pensions, wages for public servants and scholarships by 25%. While reconsidering the national budget last summer it was decided to raise scholarships by 14.4%. As a result, since Sep 1, 2008 the size of the scholarships for university students has made KZT 7500. According to the draft three-year budget in 2009 the scholarships will be increased by 20% (KZT 9300). The volume of state educational order for higher education personnel training for 2008-2009 academic year counted 33 490 grants that exceeds the level of 2006 by 1000 grants. The average expenses for education of one student amount to KZT 187.6 thousand per year. Work on establishment of ?New university? scientific-educational complex in Astana continues. The University will become an international centre for education, science and engineering in the Central Asian region with further positioning in the Eurasian space. A network of vocational-technical institutions is being developed in Kazakhstan. There are 530 colleges and 318 vocational lyceums in the country covering 605.2 thousand students. 184.9 thousand of them study by state order. The Program provides for development of state-private partnership in training of personnel at the expense of budgetary means. By the President?s instruction the State Program on development of technical and vocational education in Kazakhstan for 2008-2012 and an Action Plan on the Program?s realization were adopted. KZT 58.18 bln is envisaged for its implementation, including KZT 40.75 bln ? from the national budget and KZT 17.43 ? from the local budgets. The Program aims at modernization of the system of technical and vocational education for provision of the sectors of economy and employers with highly-qualified specialists of technical and service labor with competitive skills and enough potential for continuation of education. The Government pays particular attention to the training of specialists in medicine and pharmacy. The state has provided 4500 grants for 2008-2009 educational years. That is by 500 grants more than in the previous years. In compliance with the task of the President of the country, the number of candidates for ?Bolashak? scholarship is increased. Last year the state provided 886 scholarships for the students, public servants, scientific workers and teachers of the state scientific-research institutes and higher education institutions. The most preferred countries were the USA, Great Britain, Germany and Russia. The most popular and prestigious specialties were economics, information systems, public policy, finances, international law, biotechnology, oil and gas engineering and medicine.