Enrollment in kindergartens to be increased to 99.3% by the end of 2022 in Kazakhstan

At the government session chaired by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov, the issues of holding the Year of Children were considered. Minister of Healthcare Azhar Giniyat, Minister of Culture and Sports Dauren Abayev, Vice Minister of Education Sholpan Karinova, akims of Karaganda region Zhenis Kassymbek and Atyrau region — Serik Shapkenov presented their reports.

According to Vice Minister of Education Sholpan Karinova, on the basis of the Presidential Decree on declaring 2022 the Year of Children, the Action Plan was adopted by the Government, which includes 66 events in 7 areas. Regional, district and city plans have also been adopted.

To organize the work, together with akimats and other ministries, an operational headquarters was created, an instructive-methodical letter was developed and sent.

“The pool of speakers posted more than 18 thousand publications in the media and social networks in 5 months. More than 2.5 million children took part in 17,300 regional events, including more than 700,000 from certain categories. In general, 130 NGOs and more than 20 thousand educational organizations take part in the implementation of the Year of the Child,” Karinova informed.

In turn, 322 kindergartens for more than 34 thousand places will be opened for preschool children, of which 130 for 9.4 thousand places were opened in 5 months. By the end of the year, the coverage of kindergartens for children aged 3-6 years will be increased to 99.3%.

“In order to avoid emergencies in private kindergartens, we will strengthen security measures, provide qualified specialists, and also improve the quality of government orders using a voucher mechanism. More than 15,000 educators are taking relevant courses on the new model, which will improve the quality of education,” the vice minister said.

At the same time, in order to ensure transparency in the distribution of places in kindergartens, a single queue database is being created. 34 competence centers are being created on the basis of the best kindergartens.

For the first time this year, the fleet of special school buses will be extensively updated to safely transport more than 25,000 children to educational institutions. Akimats purchase 515 school buses through leasing. The first buses are planned to be delivered to the Akmola region during this month.

Along with this, in the Year of Children, the number of junior schoolchildren who were provided with free hot meals increased by 10%; the work of the city of Shymkent and the Karaganda region can be noted.

“For the first time in the Year of Children, funds were allocated from the republican budget for the participation of our young athletes in international sports competitions, the Kazakh team won 86 medals at the World Gymnasium in France and took 3rd place among 70 countries after Brazil and France,” Karinova.

Additional education is received by 2.4 million students, this year more than 270 thousand children will be covered by additional circles and sections. Until the end of the year coverage will increase by 5%.

In addition, this year Kazakhstani Olympians have been allocated 31 full quotas for participation in 7 prestigious international Olympiads, in which children will take part in July-August. For the first time, at the expense of republican funds, the winners and prize-winners of these international intellectual Olympiads, the teachers who prepared them, are awarded.

Also, for the first time, more than 100 winners and prize-winners of international intellectual, creative, sports Olympiads were given special grants for admission to domestic universities “out of competition”.

For the first time, 1,000 underachieving children from socially vulnerable families will have the opportunity to study in 134 schools for gifted children on an equal basis with talented children.

Through a number of systemic projects, the educational component became more active.

To date, 6.5 thousand students in school parliaments develop self-government and participate in school management.

“In order to develop communication skills and teamwork, 5,905 debate clubs have been opened in our schools, covering more than 120,000 students, over the past 5 months, more than 16,000 children have joined them,” the Vice Minister said.

Within the framework of the republican project “Reading School”, the reading movement among children has been activated.

The book fund of school libraries has been updated with new art, children's literature in the amount of 2.2 million copies.

An impetus was given to the volunteer movement in the field of protection of children's rights. More than 63,000 volunteers took part in helping homeschooled children.

Meanwhile, in the new academic year, in grades 5-11, the course “Patriotism and Global Competences” is being introduced, which includes citizenship, honesty, integrity, ethics, media literacy, and financial literacy.

The format of school-parent communication has been changed: instead of the usual parent meetings, pedagogical-parent councils began to systematically consider educational achievements, order, and the interests of the child at personal meetings.

Uniform rules will be introduced this year to improve the work of school psychological services.

A number of projects are planned to be implemented jointly with the Kazakhstan Khalkyna Foundation.

“The Digital Teacher project aims to support 500,000 underachieving students in order to reduce the gap in the quality of education. Special equipment will be purchased in 98 special boarding schools for children with disabilities with hearing, vision, speech, and mental disorders. As part of the Children and Theatre, a project aimed at the cultural and emotional education of children, 500,000 children will be provided with free subscriptions,” Karinova explained.

This year, 10 billion were allocated from the republican budget for the technical and vocational education of children entering colleges for 45,000 places. Thus, the state order was increased by 40%.

Entrance exams have been canceled for applicants, now they are accepted through the average score of the certificate, the applicant independently chooses 4 colleges and 4 specialties, he is given the opportunity to receive up to 3 qualifications, enterprises have been given a target state order, now enterprises can independently choose students, develop educational programs together with an educational institution and to train the necessary specialists in a timely manner. The list of preferential admission quotas has been expanded to 9 categories.

The number of grants for children entering universities increased by 88,214, which is 15 thousand more than in 2021. Grants for technical specialties increased by 60%, the rural quota — by 35%. More than 7 thousand grants have been allocated for socially vulnerable categories.

As the vice minister noted, thanks to the republican action "Balaga Layik", the state of school canteens and bathrooms is under special control. All educational institutions have posted a QR code for the Bala Qorgau project to provide free advice to students and their parents, and the balaqorgau website has been launched, operating 24/7. Answers are provided.

It should be noted that the organization of summer recreation and leisure for children is under special attention.

Work has been carried out to improve its efficiency and develop human resources. In May, a republican rally "Navigators of childhood" was held with the participation of student pedagogical teams of children's camps. Local akimats reviewed the state of summer camps, school playgrounds, summer schools and carried out repair work.

“Before this, the organization of recreation with quarantine restrictions was not fully implemented for two years, and this year we plan to cover 3.3 million students in the summer. The indicator will increase by 31%. However, there is a need to increase the number of country camps,” the vice minister informed.

Today, on Children's Day, with the participation of the head of state, a festive event Balafest is being held in Almaty, covering more than 6 thousand children, and a trip for children from different regions to the city of Nur-Sultan has been organized. In the regions, the Children's Day holiday is held on a large scale.

“We believe that given the fact that children are on summer vacation for three months, it is necessary to pay special attention to their safety in the regions,” added the vice minister of education and science.

Minister of Healthcare Azhar Giniyat reported on the implementation of the Action Plan for the Year of Children. The main indicators of the work of the pediatric service are: morbidity, primary disability, infant and child mortality.

According to her, the most important thing in protecting the health of children and adolescents is the definition of a single consistent strategy for providing medical care at all stages of development, starting from the period of pregnancy, i.e. inside the mother's womb.

Thus, today the coverage of pregnant women with prenatal screening for the detection of malformations of organs and systems is 85.4%. Low coverage in North Kazakhstan (77.2), Karaganda (67.2), Pavlodar (64.3), Kostanay (51.9) regions.

The coverage of biochemical screening for the detection of chromosomal diseases is 77.7%. The lowest coverage is in North Kazakhstan (64.1), Mangystau (63.4), Karaganda (56.6), Pavlodar (49.9), Kostanay (37.9) regions.

In the structure of malformations in newborns, malformations of organs and systems occupy 96.3%, chromosomal disorders - 3.7%. Mortality from congenital malformations ranks second in the structure of causes of infant mortality and does not tend to decrease.

“This is due to the shortage and insufficient qualifications of ultrasound specialists. In addition, 104 specialists are needed, of which 15 specialists are most lacking in the WKO, 13 specialists in the Almaty region, and 11 specialists in the Akmola region. The equipment of ultrasound devices for prenatal screening is 67%, the lowest equipment is in Turkistan (need 28), Almaty (26), WKO (14), Karaganda (10) regions,” said Giniyat.

To improve the situation, the Ministry:

  • approved Rules for prenatal screening;
  • the Standard for prenatal ultrasound screening was developed;
  • 150 specialists were trained according to the international standard for ultrasound diagnostics;
  • it is planned to purchase more than 50 expert-class ultrasound devices.

These measures will:

1) to form a single procedure and algorithm for conducting prenatal screening;

2) to increase the equipment of ultrasound devices of an expert class;

3) to improve the detection of fetal malformations up to 80%.

According to a WHO global initiative, early childhood is a critical period during which a child must receive the care and nutrition to ensure optimal development. Investing in early childhood development is one of the best investments a country can make.

So, for the purpose of early coverage and diagnosis of diseases in children, the country has introduced a screening program for newborns and young children, which allows you to implement a phased integrated approach, accompanying each child from the neonatal period to reaching school age:

1) neonatal screening covered 445,212 children (99.6%). 231 children with phenylketonuria, 3549 children with congenital hypothyroidism were identified.

2) audiological screening covered 1.6 million children (75.6%). Revealed with hearing loss of 1-2 degrees - 625 children, with hearing loss of 3-4 degrees - 646 children. 235 children underwent cochlear implantation.

3) psychophysical screening covered more than 1.7 million children (85.2%).

13,863 children with psychophysical developmental disabilities and 1,232 children with hearing impairments were referred to a psychological, medical and pedagogical consultation for further correction (PMPC).

4) ophthalmological screening covered 6532 (88.2%) children born with extremely low body weight from 500 g. Surgical treatment was carried out in 273 preterm infants (29.4%).

The most problematic region in terms of screening studies is the city of Almaty (screening coverage was 9.8), low screening coverage is noted in Kostanay (65.8), Akmola (75.0) regions.

Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry has launched several initiatives aimed at increasing coverage and improving quality:

  • the Standard for Organization of Pediatric Care was developed;
  • a pilot project was launched on selective screening of newborns for 49 hereditary metabolic diseases;
  • audiological screening is supplemented by the ABR method to determine the exact location of the lesion of the auditory system;
  • the issues of purchasing equipment are being worked out, including through the Kazakh Khalkyna Public Foundation, the Ayala Charitable Foundation, etc.;

The list of drugs and CNF includes 17 medicines for the treatment of orphan and serious diseases in children, 16.4 billion tenge has been allocated.

a draft standard for the organization of neonatal care has been developed, which will regulate the principles of organizing care for newborns at all levels of medical care, with the organization of observation of premature babies in follow-up rooms.

In order to improve the health of children, preventive examinations of children from 0 to 18 years old are carried out annually at the PHC level.

According to the Minister of Health, this year it is planned to unite the packages of screening and preventive examinations of children from 0 to 18 years old with the inclusion of additional methods of instrumental and laboratory tests, examinations of narrow specialists with an emphasis on children aged 1, 3 and 6 years.

The school environment has a great influence on the formation of the health potential of children aged 6 to 17 years.

“In this regard, we have begun work on the development of a Standard for the organization of medical care for schoolchildren, which will regulate the functionality of a school nurse, the standard for the number of students per 1 position of a school nurse, the standard for the material and technical equipment of medical centers in schools, the procedure for preventive work, etc.” said Giniyat.

Also, the Health Promoting Schools project has been relaunched, bringing together various segments of the school and community: teachers, food service workers, students, families, school leaders, school nurses, social service professionals. For 2 years, due to the pandemic, this project did not work properly, today the project covers 1,181 (17%) schools. As a result of the work, it is expected that the conditions of the school environment will be created to support a healthy lifestyle. The number of overweight students is expected to decrease to 90.0 per 100,000 child population by 2025 (94.3).

Since 2015, neonatal surgery has been actively developed in the country. During this period, 12,000 children were operated on. On average, 1,500 newborns undergo surgical correction annually, including innovative methods. The number of operations using endoscopic technologies increased from 19% to 22%, the efficiency was 88.6%.

The number of cardiac surgical interventions in children is increasing from 510 in 2008 to 2562 in 2021. Modern methods of interventional cardiology have been introduced.

The efficiency of CHD surgical treatment was 97.1%.

Special priority attention is paid to the development of oncohematological care for children. A roadmap has been approved for improving oncohematological care for children in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2022-2024.

In order to implement the instructions of the Head of State, the Ministry pays great attention to the development of rehabilitation assistance.

“The availability of rehabilitation assistance to children has been increased, so over the past 3 years the number of rehabilitation beds and centers has more than doubled. Over 53 thousand children underwent rehabilitation in 2021, which is 3.3 times more than in 2019,” Giniyat informed.

For the first time in the country, measures have been launched to introduce the institution of "early intervention". By the end of the year, 17 early intervention centers will be opened, where up to 10 thousand children aged 0 to 3 years will be able to receive treatment annually.

As part of the implementation of the principle of "walking distance" since last year, the rehabilitation of children at the outpatient level has been introduced, as a result, only for the 1st quarter of this year. more than 4.2 thousand children received medical rehabilitation at the level of polyclinics at their place of residence.

The President of the country, expressing serious concern about the family and demographic situation, when 20% of married couples break up as a result of infertility, instructed to implement a special program "Ansagan Sabi". Within the framework of which assisted reproductive technologies became available to 7,000 women, as a result, more than 3,000 women were registered for pregnancy, 1,560 long-awaited children were born in 1,307 families. This program will continue until 2025 as part of the Healthy Nation national project.

In 2022, as part of the Year of Children, the Ministry of Health increased funding in several areas of children's health care, in particular, the amount of funding for preventive examinations of the child population was increased by 54% from 10.9 billion tenge. up to 16.8 billion tenge.

The total amount of funding allocated to school medicine was increased by 24% from 22.2 billion tenge to 27.5 billion tenge. The per capita standard per student has been increased from 549.44 to 654.79 tenge.

28.1 billion tenge was allocated to provide dental care for children, which is 24.5% higher than in 2021.

For the first time, an additional 5 billion tenge has been allocated for audiological screening.

Since 2019, the Ministry has been implementing a program to provide orthodontic care to children from low-income families, in 2022 the amount allocated for these purposes has been increased by 5.6 times and amounted to 5 billion tenge.

With the introduction of the CSHI system, financing of medical rehabilitation as a whole increased by 7 times, including more than 11.4 billion tenge in 2021, 15.2 billion tenge in 2022 were allocated for children.

The measures taken will contribute to:

  • increase the coverage of pregnant women with quality antenatal care up to 85%;
  • increasing the coverage of children in the first year of life with proactive observation;
  • preventing the development of severe complications and adverse outcomes up to 10%;
  • increasing the availability of medical rehabilitation up to 50%, including for the first time for young children;
  • the birth of about 2.5 thousand long-awaited children thanks to the Ansagan Sabi program.

During the meeting of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Dauren Abayev also made a report. The Minister of Culture and Sports reported on the plans and activities implemented by his department. Thus, the Ministry is actively working to fulfill all instructions and tasks within the framework of the “Year of Children”.

“All work is aimed at providing quality and affordable education, full-fledged creative development, increasing the creative and sports potential of children. In general, large projects are being implemented in the field of culture with a total coverage of more than 1 million children,” the head of the ministry noted.

As an example, the Minister of Culture and Sports noted the following events:

Republican cultural and educational project "Ulagatty Urpak". The project is carried out on websites and social networks. The number of views on it amounted to 986 thousand, by the end of the year it is expected to increase views to 2 million.

“This is a very interesting large-scale project, students can take virtual trips without leaving their homes, they can watch movies and cartoons in the Kazakh language. The lectures are attended by the teaching staff of higher educational institutions on 20 sites in 5 areas, video lessons are being prepared on musical art and other areas,” Abayev noted.

The project "Cultural standard of a schoolchild", which is implemented in 1,510 schools. This is 20% of the total number of schools in the country. By the end of the year, this figure is planned to be increased to 30%.

Functioning of the children's literature website "Dana Bala" (www.danabala.kz), whose book fund consists of more than 1000 full-text books by Kazakh authors. By the end of the year, more than 5,000 books will be placed.

The republican festival-exhibition of children's creativity "Talents among us" was held.

“Let me give you one example, this year we held awards for winners in 16 nominations: “Best Archaeologist”, “Best Poet”, “Best Inventor”, “Best Actor”, “Best Singer. Bibigul Tulegenova”, etc. The winners were awarded diplomas. The award ceremony was held on May 18, International Museum Day. The awards were presented by well-known Kazakh figures,” said Dauren Abayev.

The implementation of the online project "Azhemnin ertegileri" covered 31 thousand children. It is planned to cover 40,000 children by the end of the year.

An inclusive museum festival of children's creativity "Meyirim" was held. Within the framework of the festival, clay therapy, intuitive painting, “Drawing Together”, “Landscape from Plasticine” events were held. Work was carried out with children with special needs.

A large social project "Summer Cinema" was launched on the occasion of Children's Day. During the summer period, free screenings of films will be organized for children and adolescents from large, socially disadvantaged families who need special assistance.

This project was implemented by the State Concert Organization "Kazakkontsert" named after Baglanova together with Kazakhfilm JSC and National Cinema Support Center JSC.

A number of creative events dedicated to this holiday are held. Among them are: an exhibition of museum circles in the National Museum, a show of fairy tales in the Academic Korean Theater of Musical Comedy and the Academic Theater for Children and Youth named after G. Musrepov.

A charity concert "Journey to the Children's World" was also organized at the Kazakh Music and Drama Theater named after. Kuanyshbaev and a dance flash mob for the children's theater studio "SatsComUnity".

The Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan has also planned new projects, such as: the premiere of the children's ballet Cinderella by Prokofiev in the neo-classical style with break dance elements, the festival of children's art "Newart" for children with special educational needs.

Also, one of the new projects was the training school "Zhas kalamger". Here the following can be noted. These schools will teach in English. It will teach reading prose and dramaturgy. As Dauren Abayev noted, the lectures will be given by well-known figures of culture and literature.

Among other projects, the Republican competition for young pianists "Astana Piano Passion", "Best Children's Works" and "Best Book of the Year" will also be implemented, the purpose of which is to increase the reading activity of children.

The Minister of Culture and Sports also noted that his department pays special attention to the development of mass sports among the population, primarily among children and adolescents. The most active share falls on students of general education schools.

As Abayev emphasized, out of the total number of school-age students, 2 million children are covered by physical education and sports. There are 652 children's and youth clubs and 138 children's and youth physical culture clubs in the republic, which cover more than 200 thousand children and teenagers.

“Several projects are being implemented in this direction. The “Accessible Sports” program has been launched and is dynamically working in 7 cities of the republic. It covers more than 20,000 people,” said Dauren Abayev.

As part of the organized events of the ministry, together with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, a program of the national school league in 10 sports is also being implemented. It covers more than 2.7 million school-age children.

As Abayev noted in his speech, a draft schedule for the development of sports infrastructure was developed jointly with local executive bodies. It includes the construction of 113 new facilities, the modernization of 21 facilities and the additional equipment of 6 large facilities.

As part of the celebration of Children's Day, the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan organized a number of events, namely:

A futsal tournament with the participation of members of the national futsal team and a team formed of children at the Martial Arts Palace named after Ushkempirov.

Kazakhstani athletes Vasily Levit, Merey Akshalov and Sergey Tsiryulnikov will visit a specialized orphanage in the city of Nur-Sultan and present memorable gifts to children.

For the highest quality career guidance for schoolchildren, Dauren Abaev noted that the department is implementing the project "Live Lessons". The emphasis is on revealing the talents and abilities of children. The project covers 1080 children in 4 regions.

The Minister of Culture and Sports also reported that in order to reduce citizens' spending on recreation and promote domestic tourism, a government support measure to subsidize children's air tickets - Kids Go Free - came into force.

As part of the work to promote and develop domestic tourism among children and adolescents, local executive bodies are also actively involved. For example, in the Almaty region, it is planned to hold an open republican Touriad on mountain and hiking tourism "Dzungaria" with coverage of about 300 children. In Akmola region in July this year. it is planned to conduct the tour "Ainalayin, Atameken" for schoolchildren - ethnic Kazakhs from the Russian Federation, covering more than 250 thousand children.

“During the summer, projects on children's archeology, social initiatives “A Week in the Village” and “Summer School” covering about 2,000 children will be implemented,” Dauren Abayev, Minister of Culture and Sports, concluded.

Akim of the Karaganda region Zhenis Kassymbek informed that in the summer period it is planned to cover 184 thousand children or 92.4% of the total number of students from grades 1 to 10 with health improvement and employment. This is 108 thousand children more than last year.

350.2 million tenge are provided from the budget for these purposes, of which 50 million tenge. will be used to purchase vouchers for more than 10,000 children from socially vulnerable families.

As the akim noted, there are 11 country camps in the region, including 6 state ones, where about 10 thousand children will have a rest.

“At the expense of sponsors, 1,300 vouchers were purchased, including within the framework of the “Give children a voucher” challenge. About 3,000 children of workers will have a rest at the expense of large enterprises "Arcelor Mittal" and "Kazakhmys". More than 100 thousand children will be covered by school camps with meals and specialized sites,” the head of the region said during the report.

Also, the regional akim reported on the opening of a private ethno-tourist camp "Ulytau" in the Ulytau region, where children can learn handicraft skills, prepare national dishes, get acquainted with national games, as well as an excursion into the history of the region. According to the plans of the regional akimat, 660 children will have a rest in the camp during the summer.

“We pay special attention to children from socially vulnerable families, as well as those on preventive records. This is almost 15 thousand children. 11 families with disabled children in the city of Zhezkazgan will receive apartments from the Kazakhmys Corporation on June 1,” Kassymbek said.

During the summer period, clubs and sections will operate on the basis of additional education organizations, courtyard clubs, cultural and sports facilities. Akimat of the region will implement the sports project "AulaFit" and continue the practice of free training of children from low-income families in swimming.

The implementation of the "Art for All" project will also continue, within the framework of which monthly free visits by children and teenagers to cultural facilities of museums, theaters, concert and exhibition halls are provided.

“To date, cultural facilities have already been visited by 37,000 children, of which 4,000 are from socially disadvantaged families. During the summer, excursions will be organized for children from large and socially vulnerable segments of the population to the city of Nur-Sultan and to sacred places,” the akim of the region said.

Within the framework of the state social order, the Akimat of Karaganda region will implement the project “Organization of tourist and local history work” from June, within the framework of which it is planned to open support centers for the development of children's tourism, study trips and a rally of young tourists.

“More than 23,000 teenagers plan to find employment in various enterprises during the summer, including 2,200 students who will work under the Zhasyl el program. Work in this direction will be continued,” summed up Akim of the Karaganda region Zhenis Kassymbek.

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