Aizada Tajibayeva

South Kazakhstan State pedagogical institute, Kazakhstan

Some social aspects of educational grant system in Kazakhstan

The number of universities in Kazakhstan has risen dramatically after the country gained the independence and in 1993 the government legally allowed to establish private universities. At present there are 148 schools (9 national and 2 international, 32 public and 12 non-civil, 93 private, including 16 joint-stock), which educate more than 595 thousand people. During the period from 1999 to 2010 the number of students at universities in Kazakhstan has increased to double, although the number of free places has declined.

Admission to the colleges, which was previously taken independently by the colleges, now it is based on the results of the Unified National Test (UNT), which was introduced at the national level in 2003. UNT is an attempt to introduce a transparent procedure of student’s admission, eliminating corruption. All higher education institutions are obliged to admit students exclusively on the basis of the UNT. Test including four subjects is hold all over the country in one day, at the same time. Results are determined by computers the same day.

UNT can be taken either in Russian or Kazakh. Mandatory components of the UNT are: Kazakh or Russian language, history of Kazakhstan, and mathematics. Fourth, the profile subject is chosen by the student himself. Results are estimated by 1200 point scale (maximum 30 points for each subject). To enter university the student is required to obtain at least 50 points overall, including at least seven points on the profile subject. Every University has its own passing grade for admission.

Despite the rapid growth of revenue from oil and gas, public expenditure on education in Kazakhstan remains low. According to official statistics, education expenses are less than 15% of total government spending. To compensate the low levels of public funding for education, the government adopted multi-pronged strategy for resource mobilization, consisting of the following three strategic elements:

• Rapid growth of private higher education;

• Share in the cost of education at public universities and colleges;

• Privatization of some state universities.

Thus, the dissemination of higher education among people has become possible by the rapid growth of the private sector, funded primarily by students and their families. Today Kazakhstan is in the list of countries with the highest level of private financing of education. In 1999 the government decided to replace direct budgetary transfers in public universities into educational grants for students, who may choose public or private institution of their choice.

But since the public financing of current expenditure is enough only for about 20% of all full-time students of state universities and colleges, other students are required to pay tuition fee. In both state and private universities the fee for training cannot be less than the base size of the educational grant. The more prestigious the University the higher fee it fixes for “commercial student”. The students with educational grant, if their UNT scores are enough for entering this University, they study free of charge despite the tuition fee is higher than the grant itself.

In different years, from 15 to 20% of school leavers who have achieved the best results on UNT, receive certificates of educational grants and enter any public or private educational institution if the specialty they have chosen is in the first-priority for the country. Relevance of higher education institutions to grant requirements is established by the Department of quality assurance at the Ministry of Education and Science, depending on the reputation of the university and the specialties it offers.

Although the grant system has implemented not a long time ago, it becomes an effective tool for distributing rewards for colleges that are considered to be the best and offer training in specialties that are national priorities. All higher education institutions, both public and private, are interested in involving as many students with educational grants as possible, and therefore they pay great attention to improving the image and competitiveness in the market of higher education, thus helping to improve education in the country and increase the number of quality private colleges.

It is clear that the grant system is quite difficult. First, the state regulates the number of grants to groups of specialties, thereby encouraging the students to choose those professions which are considered a priority for socio-economic development. These priority areas are selected centrally at the Ministry of Education and Sciences, which are usually based on employment forecasts, determined without sufficient consultation with employers. For example, today at the workforce market we have an excess of human resources with economic or juridical training and a great number of young people are unemployed or have to work in quote different areas, where the diploma of higher education are not required at all.

Second, in nine national and two international universities, the grant size correspondingly higher than in other universities. Therefore, the number of grant seats at these schools is limited.

Thirdly, grants perform a support function of educational mobility for certain groups. The following quotas for state educational grants are set:

• 30% - for the citizens from rural area, applying to the specialties, determining the socio-economic development of this area;

• 2% - for Kazakhs who are not citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

•0,5% - for children with disabilities;

• 1% - for orphans and children without parental care.

Thus, it is important to make sure that the abovementioned reforms do not have negative consequences in terms of social justice.

The grant system’s strategic intention is that the recipients of educational grants are to be selected only on the criteria of their abilities and the Unified National testing should not discriminate children from less affluent families. However, the results of the Unified National Test shows that the rate of successful passing of the UNT varies greatly in different schools. In particular, children from disadvantaged rural areas have lower scores and passing rates than their urban counterparts, because of the fact that they mostly go to small schools and the quality of school education is much lower than in urban ones. This means that no talent and abilities, but school location affects access to education grants.

We have already mentioned that to compensate this social injustice in the selection process, the government decided to leave up to 30% of educational grants for rural students. However, to take advantage of the quota and get a high-quality education in a prestigious University the student must have high scores for the UNT, which is not possible for them taking into consideration the quality of their previous school education. Therefore most of rural “grant students” usually get the minimum of passing grade and study in non-prestigious universities and colleges. To find an affordable housing is also a serious problem for them, because on-campus living possibilities are also limited. Therefore it is difficult to judge whether it is enough of these quotas to compensate social injustice in the selection process.

Second, when private universities set tuition fees, which differs from the amount of educational grant, there appeared a situation of cross-subsidization between students who are from public budget and those who pay tuition themselves. In some cases, universities set lower tuition fees for fee-paying students, which lead to the positive effect of redistribution. But in other cases, this adversely affects the social justice, because “commercial students” subsidize students from non-poor families enrolled in education grants.

The third and perhaps most important aspect to consider - the miserable percent of quotas for students with limited abilities and orphans. The problems and gaps in this field especially if they refer to the children or people with limited abilities cannot be a matter of indifference for us as we are all human beings. We should admit in our country these people are limited in everything - in having conversation, contacts with outside world, access to art, possibility to get an adequate job in order to support themselves. And it has to be emphasized they are limited in getting good education among others.

The fourth – the problem of availability of training for students who do not receive educational grants and therefore forced to pay for learning themselves. The absence of definitive data on the socio-economic situation of students in institutions of higher education and training programs cannot provide a clear picture of the actual situation. The cases when students from families with low and middle income countries for obvious reasons cannot choose expensive universities are expanding. To ensure an equitable distribution of public resources in higher education, it is necessary to create a reliable system for collecting information about the key personal and social characteristics of students (socio-economic origin, sex, rural / urban, ethnic, etc.). This information would be used to evaluate the effectiveness of public expenditure through the analysis of the distribution of state subsidies to various population groups. This analysis will allow adjusting the strategy of education reform as necessary.

References:

1. Education Act. 27 July 2007. Astana.

2. Kazakhstan Review of Public Expenditures and Investments / Education and Healthcare Systems, unpublished document. World Bank, Astana, 2005.

3. Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2006. OECD, Paris.