N.V.Mirza, PhD of Pedagogical Sciences, Senior Lecturer

The Karaganda State University afer. E.A.Buketov, Kazakhstan

Some problems of professional education

in Kazakhstan

As a result of scientific and technical, informational, and technological revolution, scientific character of practically all spheres of human activity has sharply increased. This circumstance puts forward education as one of the major priorities in national policies of many countries.

Nowadays, when one of the major regularities of society development is a close interrelation of social and economic progress and constant perfection of education system, professional education should be efficiently adapted to satisfy needs of a person and society in their self-development in order to enable young experts for development of analytical skills to address arising problems, to be able to put forward alternative decisions and develop criteria of their efficiency.

These days, they demonstrate increased requirements to development of creative abilities of future experts as well as to mastering knowledge, skills, and creativity. All these immediately enhance their competitiveness, professional adaptability, enterprise and initiative. Under conditions of market economy they put forward individual’s abilities, creativity, special skills, and professionally important qualities, initiative in actions and decision-making, which changes requirements to professional education of a future educator.

Science industrialization process caused respective changes in sphere of education; new disciplines and trainings of interdisciplinary and problem characters have appeared as well as other various forms of obtaining degrees, types of educational institutions, refresher and career development trainings. The main objective of the educational system, both on its higher and secondary levels, is training of specialists with independent, critical, and creative thinking.

Industry development rates are already so high that needs of a society for labor and political activity of youth exceed the level available for today. One of the reasons of a low level of activity of youth is absence of techniques, which stimulate process of self-organization of a professional’s personality. It speaks, first of all, that professional education, as a rule, suggests a passive role for the subject of training. At this point, general educational and higher schools in their traditional version have proved as conservative. Called to be ahead of reality and in the process of educating young specialists be guided by society development forecasts, improvement and even change of working relations, for instance, during transition to market economy, the educational system, at its best, tried not to lag behind that level of production which was available for the current period.

Professional education should reflect basic features of modern technologies and reproduce those by its specific means. All main characteristics of the current stage of technology development require adequate reflection in the educational system.

Increase of scientific character of modern «know-how»’s carried out on the basis of discoveries of fundamental sciences; therefore, principles of a specific job should be based on regularities of these sciences. Thus, conceptual character of vocational training means strengthening of general academic efficiency of future specialists.

Experience of industrially developed countries shows that genuine social and economic well-being is reached through scientific and technical progress, while a break in a science, engineering, and technology is achieved, as a rule, as a result of intellectual revolution, when they bring to front the idea about a science and education as the most critical elements of culture, powerful factors of human development, and means to shape human’s mental potential.

Impressive achievements of fundamental science, integration of a science and engineering have become catalysts of changes in all fields of activity of an individual. Scientific and technical progress stimulates profound changes not only in manufacturing but in education, too, and first of all - in professional education.

Implementation of a thoroughgoing economic reform in the Republic of Kazakhstan, change of content and character of labor under the influence of scientific and technical progress, universal use of new technologies raise requirements to professional education of a specialist.

Labor content also defines content of professional education as well as its structure. There appear integration processes of labor functions and significance of a multifunctional specialist grows. Modern specialist should master several collateral skills that form an integrated group of trades.

It is a question of a qualitatively new level of training of an expert, the content of which should become not so much specific knowledge and job skills as advanced professionally important qualities to expand and improve these knowledge and skills on the basis of adequate comprehension of prepotent requirements of an industrial situation.

Transition to human capital economy under market conditions displaces accents in activity of professional and higher schools. Requirements to a scientific level and creative potential of specialists have sharply increased. Instead of numerous narrow – shop personnel, market economy requires specialists with broad educational culture and flexible thinking.

In conditions of economic reforms competitiveness of a specialist in a greater degree will depend on the scope of mastered and introduced flow of scientific and technical achievements that will demand purposeful and vigorous efforts to overcome established ideas about intelligence and creative individuality of future educators, and new approaches to development of methodological, organizational-economical, psychological -and - pedagogical, and methodological bases of education providing achievement of scientific and professional competitiveness, social and psychological competence and a high cultural level.

Identification, training, refresher training and rational use of intellectual scientific and technical potential, placing each gifted and talented individual in that place of a creative pedagogical process where he can reveal his potential completely. This is an important step in development of a reliable system of production of highly skilled educators, the most important condition to successfully address problems of social and economic development of Kazakhstan.

The Kazakhstan educational system is currently experiencing a period of search of strategic ways for its development. Conservatism, authoritativeness of teaching, rigidity, regulation of educational process, failure to satisfy needs for self-education and meet requirements of the society, that led to formal implementation of curriculums, to overload of trainees, and inculcation of sameness and single-mindedness fall under a pressure of modern innovations.

A new educational system with precisely designated contours of continuous education process is being generated in the country.

Significant changes in economy, labor market, mechanisms of social protection, establishment of new governmental and public structures allow to speak about formation of the new social and economic environment producing a critical impact on professional education.

Reforming of education in the republic can be defined as appeal to an individual, his spirituality, and construction of a person-oriented educational and professional system in RoK. At present, professional education undergoes significant changes. It becomes more complex and various in its infrastructure and more democratic in its forms. There appears alternative vocational training, where alongside with the state teaching and educational establishments there exist non- state educational institutions.

Transition to market economy aggravates inconsistency of educators’ professional qualification to meet requirements of an economic reform. More and more complex personnel problems put forward by labor market are not being supported by growth of competence, administrative culture, psychological stability of pedagogical workers, their skills to creatively work in severe constraints of market economy. It is necessary to provide satisfaction of society’s needs for highly qualified specialists with respect to social and economic interests. To implement the given target direction it is necessary to pay due attention to perfection and development of pedagogical education.

Implementation of the assigned targets will in many ways depend on qualitative upgrade of personnel structure of a vocational school in Kazakhstan on the basis of realization of genuine state policy on education, refresher training and job qualification improvement by enforcing continuous pedagogical education process, growth and retrofitting network of pedagogical institutes and faculties, strengthening of pedagogical colleges, and also by enhancing conditions of their work, financial condition and escalation of public status.