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IMPROVING THE SYSTEM OF CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION IN KAZAKHSTAN K. A. Duisenbaev,
S. Z. Kokapbaev
In order to improve the system of continuous professional education in Kazakhstan, it was decided, as an experiment, to transform the Almaty Humanitarian and Technical University (hereinafter AHTU), which has existed for around 10 years, into a scientific and technical complex, combining education, innovations, research and entrepreneurship. At the AHTU, accredited educational programs are developed and realized in practice, covering continuous primary, secondary, higher and post-graduate education which matches world standards, ensuring the generation and transfer of knowledge and technologies of leading education.
This task required the staff of the AHTU to generalize international experience and experimental work in integrating science and education with production, to study experience among the educational establishments of Kazakhstan, and bring the structure of the education system into compliance with legislative and normative documents.
To study international experience, employees of AHTU were sent to leading universities abroad, and we invited leading specialists and scholars here to read lectures, hold consultations and an analytical assessment of the pedagogical experiment. At the same time, the tasks determined and solved the following tasks: (a) developing a specialized program on organization of continuous professional and technical education, which is designed to speed up the replenishment of technical specialists which are in deficit in Kazakhstan; (b) providing informational and methodological materials for all participants of the pedagogical experiment and interested persons, conducting open study of the experience of integration of education and science with production; (c) creating a material and technical basis for development and release of electronic multimedia study materials, telecommunications means, for scientific and methodological provision of the study process and organization of advanced education in an interactive regime; (d) development of new forms of organization of the study process on the basis of promising organization methodological aids. At the same time, the theoretical and methodological basis for development bases for development an experimental program was the Address of the President “Kazakhstan 2030”, "State program for development of education in the
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Republic of Kazakhstan for 2005-2010”, and a number of other programs of socio-economic development of the country.
Building a new Kazakhstan has posed a global goal to the education system: to carry out training in practice of competitive staff at the level of international standards. Directed to achieving this goal are the "State program of education development in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 20052010” and the new Law "On education”. Therefore, it has become necessary to change the structure and contents of the Kazakhstan education system, focusing it on realizing solutions to these program and legislative documents. With the transfer to the 12-year study, the education system will have seven levels: pre-school education and study, primary education, main secondary education, secondary education, postsecondary education, higher education, post-graduate education. This structure stipulates the realization not only of education programs for the above-listed levels, but also special study programs for post-secondary education, study programs of education for adults, re-training and advanced training of specialists. At the same time, study programs of postsecondary education should be directed towards training junior specialists in technical fields, and also service and management fields on humanitarian specialties over the course of 1-2 years. If the study programs of the main secondary education, besides mastering the basic foundations of science, should be directed towards forming a high culture of communication among pupils, the study programs for the 11-12th classes are designed for full pre-profile training and profile study. In these conditions, the possibility will be created for pupils to choose individual forms of study.
To realize these provisions, it is necessary to change the existing structure and the contents of technical and professional education. Training qualified staff of technical and servicing work will be carried out on the basis of 10 classes, and on the basis of general secondary education at professional lyceums, academies, colleges and higher technical schools, not just for mass popular professions, but also for rare professions. The main task will be training specialists with universal and flexible skills capable of continuously raising their education level.
One of the main priorities of innovation today is actualization of advanced education. This problem may be solved by organizing the targeted continuity of advanced education in the system of continuous education, which will make it possible to create a complete system
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of adequate advanced development of the personality and training of qualified and competitive specialists. Therefore, advanced education should significantly transform the entire system of education, stipulating the development and introduction of innovative methods of technology, forms and means of effective and high-quality education.
To ensure that advanced training of specialists takes place, it is important to unite the efforts of scholars and practical workers of Kazakhstan both for creating the necessary methodological, theoretical, didactic, methodical, technological and other bases and means, and also the real embodiment of comprehensive scientific studies of advanced study and advanced education in general, and a development of an according concept. Therefore, the basis of development of modern education is advanced formation and development of the personality, which may be considered to be the main priority of the Government’s policy in the sphere of education.
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