Aimagambetov explained why schools in Kazakhstan need the Russian language
In an exclusive interview with Ulysmedia.kz, the minister said that in 2016 a major reform was carried out in the country to update the content of general education.
“We checked this reform and in practice infected it, whether it is easy for first-graders to pick up three alphabets at once. The beginning of the Kazakh language lesson, then he learns the letters of the English language. In the next lesson, he learns Russian. Of course, it’s not easy. We checked the monitoring, made sure and proved that these are large and useless loads,” he said.
When asked about the extent to which access to the Russian language in the school curriculum is justified, the minister said:
“We have to understand something. In the vast majority of cases, information is in Russian. If we take our science, culture and literature, then most of it comes out in Russian. How is it correctly written by Kazakhs in Russian? Articles, books, scientific papers – it’s all there. Therefore, I am convinced that we cannot abandon our history and forget about all this. I know some people don’t like my words, but there is no subtext in them. In order to lead the state language, we made a new decision – first-grade children should only know the Kazakh language, ”the minister believes.
Aimagambetov also added that parents sometimes complain about why children speak Russian a lot in Kazakh schools.
“I was in one of the villages in the outback – everyone there, regardless of nationality, speaks Kazakh. Why, you ask. I will answer – they have all the life content in Kazakh. In our country, children often receive a phone that does not raise unnecessary questions, and there all the information is in another language. Now we need to think about new methods of teaching languages. In Russian-language schools, from the first to the eleventh grades, they study Kazakh. 4 – 5 per week or on Friday the whole day is devoted to Kazakh. The question arises why then everyone does not speak the state language? ”He said.
Read and watch the full interview here.
Back in June, President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev spoke about the need for the Russian language in Kazakhstan, noting that it would be difficult for Kazakhstanis without it:
“We, as they say, are god-given neighbors, and Kazakhs need to be fluent in Russian, but at the same time know their own language. This is very much against the truth. did not suffer any deterioration. I’m sure of it,” the president said.