Kazakhstan Aims to Redefine the Role and Status of Teachers
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By
Aliya Haidar
Kazakhstan is preparing sweeping changes to the role of teachers, aiming to significantly strengthen their legal protections and professional autonomy. The proposals, announced at an educators’ conference in August, are being described by experts as revolutionary for the country’s education system.
Protecting Teachers’ Rights
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev participated in the conference and proposed amendments to the Law on the Status of Teachers to shield educators from non-core responsibilities.
“The issue of protecting teachers’ rights should always be a priority,” said Tokayev. “Teachers must be exempt from tasks unrelated to their primary duties. Unfortunately, local authorities often grossly violate the law in this regard. The Prosecutor’s Office must take strict action against such violations.”
In many post-Soviet countries, it has been common for teachers to be assigned duties unrelated to education. In Kazakhstan, for instance, teachers are often tasked with running polling stations during elections or referendums, ensuring voter turnout, cleaning school premises, organizing community celebrations, and more.
Tokayev also spoke out against holding teachers accountable for incidents outside school grounds. “It is inappropriate to immediately punish teachers for any accident involving children,” he stated. “If an incident occurs outside school or due to parental negligence, the teacher should not be held responsible.”
He referred to a recent case in the Almaty region, where a graduate died in a fight at a private residence. The school’s principal and teachers were dismissed, but the Ministry of Education later intervened on their behalf.
Responsibility Within the School
While calling for greater protections, Tokayev also emphasized the critical role of teachers within school walls. He urged educators to take active roles in combating social issues such as drug and gambling addiction, domestic violence, bullying, vandalism, and dependency.
Teaching has long been one of Kazakhstan’s least attractive professions due to high workloads and low pay. However, since 2019, the education budget has tripled, 1,200 new schools have opened, and teacher salaries have doubled. More than 500,000 teachers now receive performance-based bonuses.
Fighting Dependency and Exploitation
Kazakh political analyst Marat Shibutov emphasized the importance of ending the exploitation of teachers and addressing broader societal issues such as dependency.
“At a meeting with teachers, the president spoke out against parasitism, which has become widespread, especially in rural areas, where social benefits discourage work and promote idleness,” Shibutov said. “Some families even avoid treating disabled children to retain their benefits.”
He added that around 60 children had fallen from windows in Astana since the start of the year, yet the blame is often shifted to the state rather than to parents, who bear responsibility for safety at home. “Dependency is more than just a lifestyle, it’s an ideology of aggressive laziness eating away at youth,” he said.
On the issue of non-core assignments, Shibutov remarked: “It’s time to get rid of Soviet relics, teachers are not free labor or child supervisors”.
A Remedy in Mathematics
Political analyst Gaziz Abishev called for deeper educational reforms to address the psychological and cognitive vulnerabilities of young people in the digital age.
“To counter manipulation, we must equip students with fundamental tools, starting with mathematics and logical thinking,” he said. “Mathematics develops the foundations of logic and makes minds more resistant to manipulation.”
He also emphasized the importance of reading quality literature and introducing competitive debate formats in schools. “Debating techniques, working with arguments, framing, and evidence, greatly enhance critical thinking and the ability to detect manipulation,” Abishev concluded.
