[lg policy] Over 42 thousand people took language courses in training centers in six months

Tue Nov 27 16:11:38 UTC 2018

Over 42 thousand people took language courses in training centers in six
months —Ministry of Culture

Nov. 26 at the Government meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Bakytzhan
Sagintayev, Minister of Education and Science Yerlan Sagadiyev and Vice
Minister of Culture and Sports Aktoty Raimkulova reported on the
implementation of the State Program for the Development and Functioning of
Languages for 2011–2019.

26.11.2018 27

As Raimkulova noted, the country’s language policy is carried out in
accordance with the law “On Languages in the Republic of Kazakhstan” and
the State Program for the Functioning and Development of Languages for
2011–2019.

In order to fulfill the instructions sounded in the Head of State’s article
“Looking into the Future: Modernizing Public Consciousness,” the state
program was supplemented with tasks to clarify the phased transition of the
Kazakh language to the Latin script, improve spelling, and ensure
accessibility to the public. The program provides for the achievement of 9
indicators and 12 effective factors.

To date, a number of activities have been implemented under the State
Program. In the country, active training of civil servants in three
languages is organized. In accordance with the Agreement of Understanding
between the Academy of Public Administration under the President of
Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Education and Science, 558 people took
language courses from central executive bodies in 2018 (in 2017 — 610
people). In order to preserve the linguistic capital of Kazakhstan in 2018,
the state provided support for the study of the native language of 26
ethnic groups (in 2017 — 225).

In total, the country has one state and 88 regional national centers for
language studies. Training centers organize language courses in accordance
with the law "On Language." More than 42 thousand people studied in the
training centers in the first half of 2018. In 7 months of 2018, 52,245
people including 20,057 civil servants assessed their knowledge of the
Kazakh language through the KazTest system.

“According to the results of 9 months 2018, the share of total document
circulation in the state language was 93%. Of these, 91% are in central
executive bodies, 95% are in local executive bodies and 46% are in national
companies,” reported Raimkulova.

In order to expand the scope of the state language use in the country, the
following sites operate: Tilalemi.kz portal, Atau.kz onomastic base,
Emle.kz orthographic base, Termincom.kz base, Tilmedia.kz trilingual
website, Balatili.kz children's website and Qujat.kz website, where you can
find Kazakh-language examples of documents from all industries and examples
of their correct filling.

Also, according to Raimkulova, the Ministry of Culture and Sports conducted
a monitoring of the terms approved today. Of the 21 thousand approved
terms, 40.8% are own, 59.2% are borrowed and mixed.

In order to preserve the purity of the Kazakh language and translate it
into a scientific language, work began on determining the terminology
principles and the main tasks of applied terminology. Under the Government
of Kazakhstan, the Republican Terminology Commission that approves the
terms was established.

Raimkulova noted that the Kazakh versions of a number of terms that came
from foreign languages were revised, this work will continue. In addition,
work is underway on onomastics. In the first half of 2018, 726 proposals of
central and local executive bodies were considered, and positive
conclusions were given on a number of proposals.

In turn, the Minister of Education and Science Yerlan Sagadiyev reported on
the ongoing work on the indicator "The Proportion of School Graduates who
have Mastered the State Language at B1 Level." Thus, the Program provides
for an increase in the share of school graduates who have mastered the
state language at the B1 level in 2018 to 90%.

In accordance with a special order of the Ministry of Education and
Science, 11th grade students must pass a written exam in their native
language and literature when passing state final examinations. In schools
where instruction takes place in Russian, Uzbek, Uygur, and Tajik, testing
for knowledge of the Kazakh language takes place. It should be noted that
the grade “4” in the Kazakh language corresponds to the B1 level of
mastering the language, and “5” — to the level of mastering the language at
B2.

In 2018, more than 45 thousand graduates received grades "4" and "5" —
which is 90%. Thus, according to the information of the Ministry of
Education and Science, the indicator has been fulfilled.

Also, Sagadiyev reported on training the future teachers of the Kazakh
language as part of the state educational order. In the 2018/19 academic
year in the specialty "Kazakh Language and Literature," the state order was
issued for 596 places, including 405 for bachelor's degree, 180 for
master's degree, and two doctoral studies.

In addition, to date, work is underway to introduce the standard practice
of continuous education of the state language in the Kindergarten – School
– College system.

Also during the meeting, akims of the Atyrau region N. Nogayev, Pavlodar —
B. Bakauov, West Kazakhstan region — A. Kulginov, Deputy Akim of the
Mangystau region Sh. Ilmukhanbetov, and Deputy Akim Almaty city A. Madiyev.

Summing up the consideration of the issue, the Prime Minister noted that in
general the number of training centers depends on demand. Thus, if the
local executive bodies allocate social benefits for training, then
entrepreneurs will be interested, there will be more training centers.
Moreover, it was indicated that the main goal of the Program is to increase
the number of people who speak the state language.

According to the ministers, the implementation of the State Program for the
Development and Functioning of Languages is carried out within the
framework of the planned activities. Given that the state program’s
activities will soon be completed, the Ministry of Culture and Sports,
together with interested government agencies, has been tasked with working
out the issue of developing a draft State Program for the Development of
Languages for 2020–2024.

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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