Priorities of educational policyin Kazakhstan

Abstract

The research is aimed at modern educational policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in order to consider tendencies of education development in the situation of modern reforms. The authors consider the concept “educational policy” (epistemological aspect) developed in modern social philosophy and they try to demonstrate social processes where educational system is being reformed (ontological aspect). The problems of modern priorities of educational policy in Kazakhstan are considered to be important due to fundamental changes in social relations and transvaluation of moral values and negative developments in society. The paper shows relation of modern process specifics to the country transfer to liberal social structure, the system of capitalist and market relations. Collapse of economic system, education and transvaluation of values were caused by the transfer of Kazakhstan to liberal social structure. Transvaluation of values (axiological aspect of problem study) in people consciousness met transfer from Soviet directive culture to the open and mainstream culture; from learner-centred education to the competence-pragmatic one. The article describes social stratification of society, its being enhanced and escalated by moral stratification. Here the authors mean that consciousness of one part of society is involved in memories of the past while the other part of society is involved in searching moral priorities of the future. The paper underlines that successful overcoming negative development and revival of Kazakhstan as a geopolitical member are impossible without overcoming conscious ness contradiction and fixing general human values in people consciousness. The article attempts considering the main priorities in educational policy of Kazakhstan; their implementation has allowed building new educational system over the past two decades and has adapted it to significant challenges of a new type. The authors analyze the following priorities of educational policy: favorable socio-economic and cultural environment as fundamentals of moral values revival and the source of personality development, enhancement of structure and components of educational system, keeping and expressing of national educational features, eternal traditions etc.