CIC Special Briefing - Education and Science: Strong Foundations

One of the few beneficial aspects of Kazakhstan's Soviet legacy is an educated workforce and a passion for science and technology. Kazakhstan's literacy rate is 99 per cent, comparable with the highest standards in Western societies. The country's commitment to pro-vide education for all, irrespective of ethnic or religious background, is reflected in the Constitution, which grants free education for all up to secondary level and, thereafter, wide access to tertiary and professional education. Primary education is both free and universal, and the law grants equal access to boys and girls.

The severe economic downturn that followed Independence squeezed public spending on education from six per cent of the national product in 1991 to three per cent on 1994, rising to four per cent in 1999. Expenditure on education is now set to increase in real terms as the economy continues its rapid growth. Education spending in 2003 is budgeted at $916.7 million, compared to $590 million in 2000. There is also an expanding private education sector, especially at the pre-school and university levels.

Reflecting the country's culture of ethnic tolerance, education is offered in seven languages, which include Kazakh, Russian, Uzbek, Uigur, Ukrainian, German and Tajik.

Determined to keep up with the IT revolution, Kazakh schools are investing heavily in computers. There is now one PC for every 58 children, the highest number for any CIS country. More than 1,400 schools, including 602 country schools, are on the Internet as the appetite for electronic textbooks takes hold.

More than half a million students are enrolled at universities, of which Kazakhstan has 173. One hundred and eleven of these are privately owned, 36 belong to the state sector and 14 enjoy the status of joint stock companies.

Kazakhstan also inherited another remarkable legacy from the Soviet era: the 'Baikonur' Cosmodrome, the largest space launch facility in the world. Sputnik 1, the Earth's first artificial satellite, was launched from the site, as was the rocket that lifted Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the earth. More recently, Baikonur provided the launch pad for the missions to the International Space Station, as well as the launch on June 3 this year of the European Space Agency's space probe, Mars Express.

Baikonur was, in fact, built two hundred miles South West of the mining town of that name in the Kazakhstan steppes at the height of the Cold War. The purpose of the misrepresentation was to conceal the real location of the space complex, which was called Leninsk, where a secret city was constructed to house the thousands of scientists, technicians, cosmonauts and support staff who worked there.

Constructed in 1955, this immense site, extending 75 kilometres from North to South and 90 kilometres from East to West, includes dozens of launch pads, five tracking-control centres, nine tracking stations, and a 1,500-kilometre rocket test range.

When the Soviet Union disintegrated in August, 1991, the President issued a decree stipulating that since the site was located in the new Republic of Kazakhstan, it was therefore its property. However, in December that year, the Kazakhstan government signed the Joint Agreement on Mutual Space Activities, which made the site available for all members of the CIS. It is now more widely used for the purpose of international cooperation. In effect, Russia now leases the site from Kazakhstan, having learned that providing commercial launch satellites for other countries is good business for both.

Over the last decade, use of the site has facilitated 7,600 experiments in the fields of medicine, biology and technology. Now officially named 'Baikonur,' it has come to symbolise the end of ideological hostility between and East and West, and the partnership which has come to replace competition in the exploration of space.