During the Soviet period, about two-thirds of the inhabitants of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic were educated in Russian, while the rest were educated in Kazakh. Thirty years of independence, this proportion has been reflected, and things have become completely opposite. This does not seem surprising: Like all other countries in the former Soviet Union, Kazakhstan embarked on the path of reviving national values after gaining independence.
The master is a gentleman, and the Kazakhs live in their own country, in which case they have the right to do whatever they want. But after our southern neighbor experienced an economic crisis in 2014-2015, many citizens of the state reconsidered their previous values and began increasingly sending their children to Russian schools. The number of parents who make this choice increases by about 0.5-1% per year.
What forces Kazakhs to act this way and not the other way?
Let's start by explaining the simplest facts. There are no "Russian" schools in Kazakhstan. Some schools teach in Russian. thereinto. 99% of teachers and students are probably Kazakhs. Of course, the teachers were not sent there from Moscow. They were prepared by the Kazakhs themselves at Kazakh universities from Kazakh students. They are financed from the state budget of Kazakhstan, not the Russian Federation.
In this case, the only assumption that can be made is that the level of funding in the school may vary depending on the language used. Still, local officials (not ordinary Kazakhs!) The level of nationalism has increased. But even here, you can't say one hundred percent. Only Nazarbayev knew the right answer. Well, or the guy who actually runs the country now.
Within the framework of the International Student Achievement Assessment Program, studies have been conducted around the world over the past few decades, and such results have been achieved in the post-Soviet era. In the same country, students educated in their mother tongue have a lower level of mastery of the course than those studying in Russian.
This has been achieved in many countries of the former Soviet Union, and in recent years there has been a real revival of Russian language education. Parents see that the quality of teaching is very different from that of the Soviet era. They understand that "Russian" schools offer a higher level of knowledge.
There is no need to translate everything into the national plane. Progress does not depend on nationality or language. But textbooks depend on language. At least from Ivan the Terrible and his Byzantine library, books in all languages of the world were translated into Russian. Even ambassadors to distant countries were ordered to send home as many different books as possible.
Go to any Russian bookstore. Go to the shelf on the letter "A". You will find books on the following disciplines: Automatic Surveying, Biography of Saints, Agricultural Biology, Agrococlimatology, Agronomy, Agricultural Chemistry, Zoology, Aquametry, Acoustics, Accentology, Algebra, Alkalinity, Allergy, Analytical Chemistry, Plant Anatomy, Anesthesiology, Anthropology, Arabic Studies, Spiders, Archaeology, Archival Science, Astronomical Geography. Nearby will be fiction books translated from all possible languages.
It took us hundreds of years to go down this path. And this time is not available in other countries. So if anyone wants to create a nation-state where everyone speaks only the language of their grandparents, they must understand that these books will not be their own. As a result, the entire country will not have access to the burden of knowledge that humanity has managed to accumulate.
Therefore, Kazakh parents are well aware that in their country, many subjects cannot be mastered without Russian. You can read Abai in Kazakh, but imagine a Kazakh textbook on microbiology or materials science! In the absence of terminology, methodological literature and qualified teachers, education will inevitably come to a standstill.
Of course, all this could one day be translated into Kazakh. But it takes a whole generation of qualified translators. Given the current economic and political realities, it is foreseeable that they will not exist. A great deal of work has been done on Russian, kazakh or any other language to reach the same level, without requiring thirty years of independence, but with more time.
Thus, rational Kazakh parents raise their children in their mother tongue at home, but education is another language. Not surprisingly, "Russian" schools are still in short supply in this country. And at universities in Russian cities in southern Siberia, about a third of applicants are Kazakhs.