The bulk of the funds allocated for the transition of the Kazakh alphabet to the Latin script were returned to the budget due to changes in work plans. The full transition to the Latin alphabet will only begin after the new alphabet and spelling rules have been approved.
WHAT STAGE IS THE TRANSITION AT
According to Kursiv citing the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, linguists from the Institute of Linguistics, the National Scientific and Practical Centre "Til-Qazyna" and universities are currently refining the draft alphabet of the Kazakh language and the spelling rules based on the Latin script.
Thus, the final version of the alphabet has not yet been approved.
WHY THE FUNDS WERE RETURNED TO THE BUDGET
The Ministry of Science and Higher Education reported that the bulk of the allocated funds were returned to the budget due to changes in work plans.
The ministry noted that the question of allocating additional funds from the republican budget and developing unified digital communication tools will be considered after the relevant regulatory legal acts have been approved.
WHAT THE PRESIDENT ORDERed
In 2022, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev instructed the Institute of Linguistics to carry out dedicated work on the new orthography of the Kazakh language. After that, according to the Head of State's position, the transition to the Latin alphabet can be discussed. He also urged against rushing the matter.
In 2023, the President ordered work to continue on the transition from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet and to carefully study the best international practices, taking into account the mistakes of previous attempts.
CONTEXT
A separate area of expenditure on the development of the Kazakh language relates to digital projects. In particular, attention was drawn to the development of the educational game Steppe Rider for learning the Kazakh language, on which, according to public procurement data, 268.6 million tenge was spent.
It was previously reported that the Ministry of Science and Higher Education had initiated a review of the game's development. The review is being conducted by the National Security Committee (NSC) and the Department of Economic Investigations (DEI) for Astana.
