The Presidential pre-election programme includes 14 measures aimed at ensuring the welfare and education of children. This was reported by Minister of Education Askhat Aimagambetov.

At the beginning of his speech the head of the Ministry of Education reported on execution of instructions concerning pre-school education. Thus, according to him, if earlier the main goal was to cover 3-6 year old children in kindergartens, now the age is somewhat revised and the coverage will extend to children aged 2 years.

"For this purpose, it is planned to open new places in preschool institutions. As early as next year, 2.5-3 times as many places will be opened compared to this year," Aimagambetov said. 

The per capita allocation mechanism will be changed and measures will be taken to improve the quality of the kindergartens.

A unified digital database for recording, queuing up and issuing referrals to kindergartens will be created to ensure transparency and avoid duplication. This will allow for daily monitoring of places in kindergartens, waiting lists and referrals issued, saving budgetary resources and eliminating corruption risks in the allocation of places.

"Children from families of socially vulnerable groups of population will be provided with meals at the expense of budget funds. This is a very important initiative. Because a number of socially vulnerable families not only do not send their children to kindergartens, but do not even get in line due to inability to pay for food for their children while they are in pre-school organizations. As a result, these children are at risk of socialisation difficulties, poor school performance and even health problems due to the lack of nutritious food. Now, by order of the President, more than 150,000 children will be provided with food," the Minister of Education said.

Another topical issue raised by the population is the provision of food for pupils of grades 1-4. This issue is addressed in the President's program. Thus, over one million children will be provided with a free hot meal.

The programme pays special attention to children's health.  Fifty children health camps will be established. The methodological and content part of this issue will also be provided.

New measures will be taken to provide children with free circles and sections. For example, at least 100 new large facilities for development of creative and intellectual potential of children will be built. These include palaces for schoolchildren, young technicians' stations, children's technology parks, music and art schools, etc. This measure will ensure walking distance from the place of residence of children to non-school organizations.

"Now we are setting legal limits to exclude the transfer of pupils' palaces, music and art schools to the private sector," the Minister said.

On secondary education, innovative ways of teaching subjects will be introduced through digitisation of required teaching materials. Approaches to improve the quality of environmental education will be reviewed.

The Ministry of Education also faces the challenge of providing 1.5 million new student places with comfortable learning environment till the end of 2029. To this end, the national project Comfortable School will provide 842,000 new places for pupils. Additionally, more than 600,000 places will be created within the framework of the Technical Assistance Fund, through budgetary investment projects and funds from the established Education Infrastructure Support Fund, as well as through public-private partnerships. This measure will enable schools to switch to single-shift format by 2030.

The remaining schools will be provided with 7,000 subject classrooms for robotics, chemistry, biology and physics. Around a thousand schools in small towns, district centres and villages will be upgraded each year.

As for the protection of children's rights, according to the programme it is planned to introduce the institution of professional foster families. This will create an opportunity to bring up children at home rather than in orphanages. Especially for children with severe illnesses, several siblings from the same family.

"Work is being carried out with Support Centres for Children in Difficult Circumstances. The main task of Child Support Centres is to create family conditions for life, education and upbringing of children who find themselves in difficult situations and need help and support," Askhat Aimagambetov said.

All colleges, schools and kindergartens will be provided with security measures. Requirements for security agencies will be tightened.