To know Kazakh is prestigious

The basic ideas of the draft State program for the languages’ functioning and development in 2011-2020 presented the other day by the culture ministry evoked a wide public response. As earlier reported, the program was positively evaluated at a special governmental session with PM Karim Masimov. The project’s main objective is to work out a harmonious language policy for full-scale functioning of the state language as a most important factor of national unity’s strengthening with concurrent preservation of the languages of all the ethnic groups living in Kazakhstan.

Both PM Karim Masimov and the culture minister, Muhtar Kul-Muhammed more than once noted the goal could be attained given the necessary conditions for learning the language are created. And this task will be met. Specifically the project envisages improvement and standardization of teaching methods, development of education infrastructure, encouragement for learning, boosting the language’s image.

The project’s authors say the program’s main purpose is learning of the state language by all Kazakhstan citizens. To make it happen, the Kazakh language will be taught at all educational levels – from kindergartens to universities. The number of Kazak-language learning facilities will grow; more attention will be paid to the training and qualification improvement of Kazakh teachers. Given the limited number of scientific-educational centers, it is offered to more extensively employ distance learning forms.

It is also necessary to set up an accredited network of centers for teaching Kazakh, a system of monitoring education process, of evaluation and control of the state language knowledge at all educational levels.

The state program also envisages development of linguistic culture as the potential of the intellectual nation. According to the document, it is important to preserve the present level of Russian, create favorable conditions for the learning and preservation of other ethnic languages in Kazakhstan, for assistance in learning English and other foreign languages.

What will the projected outcome of the state program be in 2020? Its authors believe 95% of the population will know the state language against the present 60%.

Galym Terensai

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