Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov held a meeting on improving the social support system for the population and the new mechanism for regulating the activities of private schools under the per-capita financing model.

The progress of implementation of the Head of State’s instructions on increasing the efficiency of budget spending through digitalization was reviewed.
Minister of Labour and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan Svetlana Zhakupova reported on the ongoing work to introduce the Unified Digital Platform (UDP). Sixteen types of organizations in the fields of healthcare, education, culture, and sports have been digitalized. Since July of the current year, more than 9,000 organizations have been covered by the declaration of staffing schedules, and this work is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Digitalization has made it possible to detect a number of “grey schemes” in the social sphere. In particular, around 40,000 individuals were identified as having pension contributions without official labour contracts. Cases were found where employees are officially listed on the staff of a school in one region, but have labour contracts and pension contribution records in organizations of other regions. All detected cases are being processed by the state labour inspectorate.

As a result of the automation of HR processes, 9,600 schools were found to have 75 positions included in their staffing schedules that were not provided for in the Register and were added independently by heads of organizations. For example, positions such as “Deputy Director for School Admissions,” “Executive Director,” and others. In this regard, work is underway to bring the Register to a unified standard.

Zhakupova presented the UDP’s human-centric concept. To date, the databases cover 4.5 million people. It is proposed to forecast social obligations through a family financing plan, which will reflect the entire range of social support measures — from targeted social assistance and other benefits to subsidies for preschool education, free sports sections, and more. This will make it possible to see the overall picture of citizens’ social protection.

The Prime Minister emphasized the need for visible transformation results that must contribute to reducing irrational spending and redirecting assistance toward citizens who genuinely need it. According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, within the framework of automation and the fight against social fraud — including the identification of so-called “dead souls” — 299 billion tenge was returned to the state budget in 2024. It is expected that the digitalization of the job-subsidy program and other measures in the next three years will lead to the optimization of 135 billion tenge in budget funds.

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The meeting also addressed issues related to the financing of the education sector. Attention was given to the introduction of new mechanisms for financing private schools.

Previously, on the instructions of the Prime Minister, the Financial Center JSC was transferred from the Ministry of Education to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance to improve the efficiency of management of public educational-order funds.
Minister of Finance Madi Takiyev presented a report on the work carried out to ensure transparency in this field. In November of the current year, the OrtaBilim information service was launched on the e-Qazyna.kz web portal. The system is aimed at strengthening control over the accuracy of data through automatic verification of the number and contingent of students, availability of permits, and other indicators.

The Ministry of Finance identified serious violations in the financing of private schools receiving state orders. In particular, out of 745 institutions, 155 do not report their received income. Approximately 30% of the 427 digitalized schools did not correspond to the target designation of their type of activity. For example, in the Maktaaral district of Turkestan region, the target designation of one school was a “banquet hall,” in Shymkent — a “shopping mall,” and others.

In 64 schools, the student contingent exceeds the design capacity by more than two times. For instance, one private school in Almaty region, designed for 60 students, officially reported 702 students. This refers to improper state payments for allegedly providing educational services to citizens.

In a private school in the city of Astana, with a capacity of 241 students, 1,003 individuals were reported in documents. In addition, some schools were found to have fictitious teachers as well as cases of double financing.

The new service integrates all educational information systems. This allows for increased effectiveness of control measures regarding compliance with school and teacher workload requirements, as well as reducing the burden on the budget through filtering and preventing unreasonable expenditures.

To date, 86% of private schools have already completed authorization and signed the user agreement. The Ministry of Finance, jointly with the Ministry of Education, is conducting explanatory seminars with private school directors on changes in the financing system. It should be noted that payments for services rendered this year will be made to the schools. However, starting from January 2026, operations will be strictly regulated by the new information system. In the future, all types of public funding in the education sector will be connected to the service: state orders, grants, scholarships, and provision of dormitory places.

Olzhas Bektenov stated:

“ The conducted audit revealed numerous violations in the financing of private schools. In fact, we see that the state often pays for non-existent students. A whole illegal industry has formed in this market. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance must establish complete order in this sector starting from the next fiscal year. Not a single state tenge should be wasted or end up in the pockets of unscrupulous market participants and officials.”

Based on the results of the meeting, the Prime Minister issued a number of instructions to the ministries of labour and social protection, finance, education, and regional akimats.

#Olzhas Bektenov #Education #President's instruction #Social Security

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