Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

fact cited as evidence of a troubling slowness in the curriculum reform process. A
lack of coordination among key government agencies and donor-funded projects
and inadequate consultation with schools, teachers and service receivers were
blamed (Shamatov and Sainazarov, 2010). But it is unclear quite how a curricular
revolution could be expected to deliver radical change in ‘outcomes’ within three
years.
Kazakhstan introduced its own New State General Educational Standards in
2002, but it did not significantly alter the previous content-driven approach.
With the support of international donors — especially the Soros Foundation — the
introduction of outcomes-based education was proposed by a group of national
educators (Bridges, 2014). The State Programme of Education Development
2005-2010 was developed on the basis of government acknowledgement that
curricula and pedagogy required substantial reform, including a transition from
rote learning to outcomes-based learning. Three types of competencies were
defined in the programme, namely general competencies, subject-area expected
outcomes and subject-based outcomes. Nine learning areas (literature and
language, person and society, social studies, mathematics, informatics, science,
arts, technology and physical education) and expected outcomes, including
general competencies such as problem solving and life skills, were defined by the
programme (UNESCO, 2011). The new approach proclaimed the goal of fostering
greater flexibility, diversity and choice. School-based curriculum development
was to be encouraged, and schools would be allowed to specialise in different
subject areas such as foreign languages, mathematics and the natural sciences.
Since 2007, Kazakhstan has participated in international monitoring studies such
as TIMSS (2007) and PISA (2009). Nationwide discussion of the results of these
tests, especially the below-average achievement in PISA, has had a direct impact
on education reform policy (Bridges, 2014). The State Program of Educational
Development in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-2020 set a target of
developing ‘the training system and professional development of the pedagogic
staff of Kazakhstan’. For achieving this target, the government initiated a teacher
education reform program, selecting the University of Cambridge as a strategic
partner. A new set of State General Education Standards were introduced in
2012 and 2016. The 2016 State General Education Standards are applied only in
schools piloting a 12-year curriculum. The rest of the system remains under the
2012 State General Compulsory Education Standards, which determines the list
of compulsory subjects, programmes and study plans and allows each school to
develop its own educational plan (Pons et al., 2015).
While Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have thus imported a range of
education policies linked to financing from multilateral or bilateral donors,
Uzbekistan has been less keen to follow this path (DeYoung, 2006, p. 505). The
Uzbekistan government has been determined essentially to preserve the status
quo, control policy convergence and implement reform gradually. Uzbekistan’s
legal and statutory framework for regulating schooling has remained relatively
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Chapter 6: Central Asia and Mongolia