An acute shortage of teacher librarians drove Kazakhstan to introduce this new specialty at universities. According to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, there are currently 11,000 book rooms in the country, which lack over 6,000 librarians. This year, any interested person will be able to learn the new profession. As this industry requires state support, a total of 100 grants were allocated for the bachelor’s degree program, 20 for master’s program, and three for PhD program. Training of specialists is also carried out in the field of preschool education. Thus, 39 universities and 119 vocational educational institutions train specialists in this area.
“Personnel
training in the specialty ‘Preschool education and training’ is
carried out in 119 vocational educational institutions involving 17,000 people, 9,000
of which are enrolled under the government contract. As part of the academic autonomy granted, colleges, together with preschool organizations, develop educational programs based
on the professional standard ‘Teacher’.
The developed programs undergo a two-stage assessment process and are placed in
the register of educational programs. We also raised the qualification requirements for teacher training institutions in terms
of increasing the employment rates of graduates, improving teachers’ qualifications,
and creating living conditions for students. Given the regional characteristics, curricula and syllabuses are updated autonomously,”
said Alimzhan Kumashev, spokesperson for the Kazakh Ministry of Education.
