The Supreme Audit Chamber (SAC) conducted an audit of the effectiveness of the use of funds allocated for the development of secondary education.
According to the press service of the department, the number of schools in Kazakhstan is growing: for the 2023-2024 academic year there were over 7,800. At the same time, funding for the secondary education system is also increasing: in recent years, expenditure has risen from 1.3 trillion tenge in 2019 to 4.8 trillion tenge in 2024.
The SAC audit revealed a number of shortcomings that reduce the effectiveness of measures for the development of secondary education.
It is reported that in the formation of the state order for teacher training there are discrepancies between the forecasts of the Ministry of Labour and actual needs, which is explained by shortcomings in calculation methods.
"In terms of professional development, post-course support for teachers remains a problem. It should help teachers apply new knowledge in practice, but in reality it is limited only to seminars and publications", the statement said.
At the same time, over the last 5 years, economic losses due to textbook revisions have exceeded 16 billion tenge as a result of frequent changes in curricula.
"Shortcomings have been identified in the expert review and monitoring of textbook quality. Over 5 years, the evaluation criteria changed 12 times, which indicates a lack of a stable assessment system. The procedure for expert review through the information system for monitoring public services has not been implemented; the procedures are carried out on paper", the statement said.
In addition, it has become known that 66 schools in the country are operating without a licence, including state schools. A low percentage of successful completion of accreditation is also noted – only 18.2% of institutions pass it on the first attempt.
Overall, the state audit established:
- financial violations amounted to 1.1 billion tenge;
- ineffective planning of funds and resources reached 62.4 billion tenge;
- ineffective use of funds was recorded at the level of 3.2 billion tenge.