Law on Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan

LAW ON EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN

The Law regulates social relations as pertaining to education, defines basic principles of the state policy in this field, and aims at providing a constitutional right of the citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan, including foreigners and stateless individuals permanently residing in the Republic of Kazakhstan, to education.

Article 1. General Provisions

Article 1. General Terms Used in the Law

The following terms will be used in the Law:

1)“Military post-graduate studies”shall refer to a form of training academic and teaching personnel at military educational institutions;

2)“Academy”shall refer to a higher education institution implementing education programmes of higher and postgraduate education in one or two specialty groups;

2-1)“Academic mobility”shall refer to moving students or teachers and researchers to study or do their research for a particular academic period, a semester or academic year, to another higher education institution (within the country or abroad) with obligatory transfer of credits for education programmes mastered in their higher education institution, or to continue studies at another institution of higher education;

2-2)“Accrediting bodies”shall refer to the entities that develop standards (regulations) and evaluate educational institutions based on standards (regulations) developed by these entities;

2-3)”Accreditation standards (regulations)”shall refer to the documents developed by an accrediting body and establishing requirements to the accreditation process;

3)“Sponsored scholarships”shall refer to a scholarship established by persons or entities to encourage the best students successfully mastering education programmes, engaged in scientific research, taking an active part in the social, cultural and sporting life of the educational institution;

3-1)“Curriculum office”shall refer to a structural subdivision of the education management unit providing organizational and methodological support, analysis and evaluation of the educational process effectiveness, generalization and distribution of the innovative educational practices, which contributes to creative growth of teachers and their professional self-realization;

4)“Bachelor”shall refer to an academic degree awarded to persons who have mastered education programmes of higher education;

5)“Pre-profile training”shall refer to purposeful educational support provided to basic secondary education students to assist them in choosing their individual learning paths;

5-1)“Profession oriented school”shall refer to an educational institution implementing an education programme of general secondary education;

6)“Profession oriented education”shall refer to the process of differentiation and individualization of learning, educational process organization considering students’ interests, penchants and abilities;

7)“Bolashak International Scholarship”shall refer to a scholarship established by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan for training Kazakhstan citizens in leading foreign universities full-time, or interning as scientific, educational, engineering and technical and medical personnel in foreign organizations

7-1)“Voucher based modular advanced vocational training system”shall refer to a form of extension training providing to an employee, engaged in education, the opportunity to choose an organization, content and timing for training. The form is based on per capita financing established by the State and issued in the form of a personal document (voucher) secured by a certain amount of money;

7-2)“Advanced Training Institute”shall refer to an educational organization implementing topical education programmes in terms of advanced vocational training and retraining of the personnel in the continuous education, and supporting innovation processes in education which ensure the methodology effectiveness;

7-3)“Qualifying”shall refer to a procedure confirming the aggregate of individual abilities, professional knowledge and skills required to perform activities within a relevant professional field referring to a particular occupation;

7-4) “Special conditions for education”shall refer to conditions for education including special topical education programmes and special methods of teaching, technical and other means, living environment as well as medical, social and other services that are essential for mastering comprehensive and profession oriented topical education programmes by persons with disabilities;

8)“Intermediate attestation of students”shall refer to a procedure carried out to assess the quality of learning the content of a part or a whole of one discipline by students after the discipline has been totally studied;

9)“Final attestation of students”shall refer to a procedure carried out to define the degree of mastering educational subjects specified by the state educational standards of the corresponding educational level, by students;

10)“Education grant”shall refer to a target amount of money provided to a student for paying his/her higher education on conditions established by the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

10-1)“Education loan”shall refer to the money provided by financial institutions to a borrower to pay for his/her education on conditions of repayment, interest payment, maturity and security on conditions of maturity, interest payment and repayment;

11)“Educational activities”shall refer to the process of purposeful, pedagogically sound, and coherent interaction of the subjects of education during which the issues of training, developing and educating a person are resolved;

12)“Educational monitoring”shall refer to systematic observation, analysis, evaluation and forecast of the status and dynamics of the results and conditions of the educational process, admission, network, and ratings of achievements by educational organizations;

13)“Authorized body on education”shall refer to the central executive body of the Republic of Kazakhstan realizing management and intersectoral coordination in the field of education;

14)“The national system of education quality assessment”shall refer to a set of institutional structures, procedures, forms and means of defining conformity of the quality of education to the state educational standards, the needs of the individual, society and the state;

15)“Nostrification of documents on education”shall refer to the procedure of identifying the equivalence of the documents issued to persons who have received education in other states, international or foreign institutions (their branches);

16)“Educational accreditation”refers to the procedure used by an accrediting body to certify the conformity of educational services to accreditation standards (regulations) aimed to provide the objective information on the quality of the services and to confirm the availability of the effective mechanisms to improve the quality;

17)“State certification of educational institutions”shall refer to the procedure carried out to monitor compliance of the educational services provided by educational institutions to the national mandatory standard requirements;

17-1)“Special status of an educational institution”shall refer to a special mode of running the organization which provides the opportunity to independently determine the terms of admission, the way to implement education programmes developed by the organization, the use of their own rules and regulations in the field of teaching, research and methodological activities, issue of their own documents on education;

18)“Gymnasium”shall refer to an educational institution that implements comprehensive and supplementary education programmes of primary, basic secondary and general secondary education, ensures extended and advanced education on the social, humanitarian and other areas of study in accordance with the penchants and abilities of students;

18-1)“Scientific and methodical work”shall refer to an activity based on achievements of science and advanced educational experience, and aimed at improving the performance and development of continuing education;

18-2)“PhD, Doctor of Science”shall refer to degrees awarded on the basis of doctoral dissertations defended by candidates;

18-3)“Doctoral candidate”shall refer to a person who attends doctoral studies;

18-4)“Doctorate”refers to a professional education programmes of postgraduate education aimed at training scientific and pedagogical personnel awarded with Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree, or other types of doctoral degrees dependant on the field;

21)“Secondary school”shall refer to an educational institution implementing professional education programmes of primary, basic secondary and general secondary education, as well as curricula for extended education, of their students;

21-1)“Technical high school”shall refer to an educational institution implementing integrated education programmes of technical and vocational post-secondary education;

21-2)“Research University”shall refer to a higher education institution implementing the five-year development programme approved by the Government of Kazakhstan, and self-developed education programmes of higher and post-graduate education in three or more specialty groups using the results of basic and applied research for new knowledge generation and transfer;

21-3)“Inclusive education”shall refer to a joint education of individuals with disabilities providing equal access of different categories of students to appropriate education programmes, correctional and pedagogical and social development support by providing special conditions;

22)“Innovation and Education Consortium”shall refer to a voluntary equal association based on a joint operation agreement, in which higher education institutions, research organizations, and other entities engaged in production, combine intellectual, financial and other resources to educate highly qualified specialists on the basis of fundamental, applied scientific research and technological innovations;

25)“Institute”shall refer to an educational institution implementing education programmes of higher education;

26)“Institutional accreditation”shall refer to the assessment of the educational organization’s activities concerning the quality of the education programmes submitted in accordance with the status declared;

26-1)“Integrated education programmes”shall refer to education programmes developed by combining their relevant substantive aspects;

27)“Internship”shall refer to a form of one- or two-year training of students at medical schools in basic medical education;

28)“Residential organizations”shall refer to educational organizations providing state guarantees to certain categories of persons to enjoy their right to receive education with the accommodation provided;

28-1)“Centers for the adaptation of minors”shall refer to an organization administered by education authorities that accepts and provides temporary care of street children aged from three to eighteen while identifying their parents or other statutory representatives; children without parental care or the care of their proxy parents, in case it turns out impossible to timely accommodate these children; children taken away from their parents (one of them) or other persons in charge of these children by the wardship and guardianship authority due to the threat to children’s life or health; or children sent to special educational institutions;

29)“Vocational guidance”shall refer to providing information and advice to students in terms of realizing their rights to educational and professional opportunities, free and informed choice of profession and a place of study in accordance with their professional interests, individual abilities and psycho-physiological characteristics;

29-1)“Vocationaltraining”shall refer to a part of the technical and vocational education providing implementation of vocational education programmes with the period for training technical specialists and service workers reduced;

30)“Professional qualification evaluation”shall refer to identifying the extent to which the qualification level (abilities) of the one graduating from an educational organization implementing education programmes for technical and vocational, and post-secondary education, is in agreement with the performance of work relevant to professional occupation;

33)“Complex testing”shall refer to a form of examination held on several subjects simultaneously and the use of information technology;

34)“Clinical site”shall refer to a clinic at a higher education institution or a health care organization that runs under the auspices of local health care organizations, has a high level of material and technical base and trains and retrains physicians, research personnel, and provides all types of medical care through modern methods of organizational and methodological, educational, medical and diagnostic, and research work;

35)“College”shall refer to an educational institution implementing education programmes of general secondary, technical and vocational education, or post-secondary education;

35-1)“Cooperative learning”shall refer to one of the forms of professional training based on the corporate responsibility of the state, employers, and educational institutions;

36)“Credit based education system”shall refer to learning based on the choice and individual planning of a sequence the disciplines will be studied using a credit as a unified unit of measuring academic work performed by a student and a teacher;

37)“Admission quota”shall refer to the limiting number in terms of the state educational order including education grants for admitting disabled persons of groups I and II, persons who by benefits and guarantees are equated to World War II participants and disabled veterans, persons disabled from childhood, children with disabilities, the youth from aul (rural) area, the Kazakhs who are not citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as orphans and children without parental care, to educational organizations providing technical and vocational, post-secondary and higher education;

37-1)“Education grant of the first President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Leader of the Nation, “Orken”(hereinafter, Orken grant) shall refer to the grant established by the first President of the Republic of Kazakhstan to pay for the education of gifted children at specialized educational institutions, Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools;

37-2)“Associate professor (Docent), Professor”shall refer to academic titles granted by the authorized body on education at the request of a higher education institution or a research institution;

38)“Distance education technologies”shall refer to training when information technologies and telecommunications are used in the course of mediated (at a distance) or incompletely mediated interaction of a student and the teaching personnel;

38-1)“Out-of-school supplementary education institution”shall refer to educational organization implementing education programmes of supplementary education for students;

39)“Supplementary education”shall refer to the process of education carried out to satisfy the students’ comprehensive needs;

40)“Lyceum”shall refer to an educational institution implementing comprehensive and supplementary education programmes of basic secondary education and general secondary education providing extended and advanced education in science and mathematics according to students’ penchants and abilities;

41)“Master”shall refer to an academic degree awarded to persons who have mastered specialized education programmes of postgraduate education;

41-1)“Graduate student”shall refer to a person who has entered a Master’s Degree Programme;

41-2)“Master’s Degree Programme”shall refer to a professional curriculum of postgraduate education aimed at training academic and pedagogical personnel who will be awarded a Master’s Degree in the relevant specialty;

42)“Specialized accreditation”shall refer to the assessment of the professional curriculum quality at an educational organization;

44)“State scholarship”refers to a scholarship established by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and/or the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

45)“State educational order”shall refer to the volume of services financed by the state on pre-school education, training, skills improvement and retraining of skilled workers and professionals to meet the demands of economy, reproduce qualified personnel and intellectual potential of the society, including educational and methodological support of the education system;

45-1)“State final exam”shall refer to a form of the final assessment of students in general secondary education organizations which is a prerequisite for obtaining a state document on education, certifying that the general secondary education course has been completed;

46)“Syllabus”shall refer to a programme that identifies the content and the amount of knowledge and skills that shall be developed for each discipline (subject);

47)“Curriculum”shall refer to a document regulating the list and scope of academic disciplines (subjects) of the appropriate education level, the sequence they will be studied, and forms of control;

48)“Education and Clinical Center”shall refer to a structural unit within an institution of higher medical education equipped with modern equipment, phantoms and training models designed to develop and control students’ and/or medical workers’ practical (clinical) skills;

49)“Secondary education”shall refer to the education ensured by the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan and received by citizens as a result of mastering general professional education programmes of primary, basic secondary and general secondary education in accordance with state educational standards;

49-1)“Best Organization of Secondary Education Grant”shall refer to the money allocated annually by local executive bodies of the region, Republic cities, and the capital of the state to state organizations of secondary education following the results of the rating competition;

51)“Residency”shall refer to a form of obtaining post-graduate advanced medical education on clinical specialties;

51-1)“Residency student”shall refer to a specialist mastering education programmes of postgraduate advanced medical education on clinical specialties;

52)“Religious organizations of education”shall refer to educational institutions implementing vocational education programmes for training ecclesiastics;

53)“Scholarship”shall refer to the amount of money provided to a student to partially cover the costs for food, accommodation and textbooks purchased;

53-1)“Student”refers to a person studying at the educational organization implementing education programmes of technical and vocational, post-secondary and higher education;

53-2)“Supporting school (Resource center)”shall refer to an organization of general secondary education consolidating educational resources of nearby ungraded schools for short-term training sessions and intermediate and final attestation of students to provide students of ungraded schools with quality education;

54)“University”shall refer to a higher education institution implementing education programmes of higher education, master's degree programmes and doctoral studies in three or more specialty groups, carrying out fundamental and applied research, and considered a scientific and methodical center;

55)“Vocational school”shall refer to a school implementing education programmes of basic secondary, general secondary, technical and vocational education, or post-secondary education in the field of culture and art;

56)“Common national testing”shall refer to a form of final attestation of students at general secondary education organizations combined with the entrance examinations to educational institutions which provide post-secondary or higher education;

56-1)“National higher education institution”shall refer to a higher education institution which is a leading scientific and methodical center of the country holding a special status;

56-2)“National Research University”shall refer to a higher education institution which is assigned a special status and has adopted the five-year development programme approved by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, implementing education programmes developed by the institution for higher and post-graduate education in three or more specialty groups and using the results of basic and applied research for new knowledge generation and transfer;