The Ministry of Education has begun to implement a number of educational activities to upgrade the system of primary and secondary education in Kazakhstan. By 2025, they plan to update and finalize school educational standards for the phased introduction of 12-year education. To bring them into line with these changes, a review of the content of education and programs, methods and approaches to training and education is currently being carried out.
Accordingly, updated educational content will be added to develop students' functional literacy and competitiveness in all aspects of life, including national and universal values. Values, skills and competencies in subject areas will be added. These values and skills will be defined in the curriculum that teaches the subject, the subject curriculum is the basis of the standard curriculum.
In addition, the government of Kazakhstan is a signatory to and promotes the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, including target 4.7 to ensure that all students acquire the knowledge, skills and values necessary to promote sustainable development. In addition, an initiative has recently been launched to establish a Council for Environmental Education, which aims, inter alia, to integrate sustainable development issues into curricula. (August 2020).
As a result, the Academy of Education has asked the Research Institute for Sustainable Development of Kazakhstan and UNESCO to support them in analyzing and integrating the values, skills and concepts associated with the 2030 Agenda into these ongoing reforms. This is a unique opportunity, with political support, to have a lasting impact on the educational programs of Kazakhstan and, as a result, on future generations of students in their contribution and commitment to sustainable development goals.
Current state
The Kazakhstan Sustainable Development Research Institute (SKRI) at Narxoz University has begun working with UNESCO and the Academy of Education to review curricula and propose changes that integrate the values, skills and knowledge associated with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ( Sustainable Development Goals) into these ongoing educational reforms. Once the analysis is complete, the goal is to develop new curriculum content that will be integrated into ongoing educational reforms. After that, didactic materials and trainings for teachers will be developed to support the new curricula. On November 6, Ms. Meirgul Alpysbayeva, National Education Officer of the UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office, together with Director Dr. Brendan Dupree from Narxoz University SKRI, hosted a webinar for senior staff of the National Academy of Education and the Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan on the topic "How to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals in current and future educational reforms in Kazakhstan". These are the first steps in a year-long collaboration between the Research Institute for Sustainable Development of Kazakhstan, UNESCO and the Academy of Education to mainstream the SDGs into official education policy.