Teachers at private schools in the Turkestan region have appealed to the regional akimat with complaints about unpaid wages.
According to 24.kz, the teachers have not received their salaries for three months. One of the teachers, a mother of many children, Anar Alimbekova, lives in a rented flat. To pay for housing and support her children, she is forced to borrow money from acquaintances. Furthermore, she cannot afford her monthly loan payments.
"We haven't received our salaries since December. Among us are mothers of many children and single women. There are also those who have to pay their mortgages. Because of the payment delays, we are being evicted from our flats. It's winter now, where am I supposed to go, what are we supposed to do?" - Anar Alimbekova reported.
It has become known that until the end of last year, funding for private schools was channelled through the Financial Centre under the Ministry of Education. From 2025, responsibility for payments has been transferred to local executive bodies.
The founder of one of the private schools, Umit Omiralikyzy, stated that the current debt to the institution's teachers amounts to 34.5 million tenge.
"There is also an outstanding debt from December 2023 — about three million. We are ashamed in front of the teachers, we don't know what to tell them. State schools will soon receive their February salaries. But what do we say to our teachers?" - the statement reads.
The founder of another private school, Saltanat Madaliyeva, said she was forced to take out a loan to pay teachers' salaries.
"We have many employees, and they all have families and loans. I myself took out a loan of 8 million tenge yesterday to pay the December salary. But if we keep taking out loans, we'll simply go bankrupt. At the Financial Centre, they tell us the money is being sent to the regions and should be paid from there. We came to the akimat and the education department to sort out this problem," - Madaliyeva reported.
For his part, the acting head of the Education Department of the Turkestan region, Zhandos Makhambetov, stated that the transfer of funds to private schools was delayed due to untimely financing from the republican budget.
"Furthermore, there are remaining debts from December. We are now working with the ministry to repay the arrears. This issue will be fully resolved within 10 days. The debts for December will be paid through the Financial Centre," - he reported.
It is noted that there are 147 private schools in the Turkestan region, attended by 55,000 children. The total debt of the Ministry of Education to the institutions over two months exceeds 10 billion tenge. This does not include the debt of the Financial Centre from December of last year.