BIG problems of SMALL schools

Today, rural schools are responsible for the upbringing and education of 47% of all students in Kazakhstan (MEos, 2010). According to the statistics from Ministry of Education and Science in 2010, number of small schools over the past 15 years sharply increased for 2-fold (MEoS, 2010). To be precise, number of ungraded schools made up 56.5% of the total number of schools in the country (in 2005 that indicator was 52%). So statistics and number speaks for itself. Every fourth teacher is working and one of six Kazakhstani students are learning in ungraded schools.

Retrieved from: http://www.nur.kz/kk/287637.html 

Drain of rural population to the cities, migration processes in the country as a whole, poor infrastructure, absence of normal condition to the comfortable education has led to this sad situation (Kuznetcova, 2012). Issues related to ungraded schools are relevant not only for Kazakhstan, but also for a number of countries, such as Western Europe, Australia, USA, Canada, China, Japan, Russia, Uzbekistan and others with a large territory and low population density. Each country tackle this problem in different ways, by investing enormous budget,  providing comfortable school bus, internet access, distance learning or by the optimization of educational process (Kuznetcova, 2012). 

The concept of development of ungraded schools in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011 - 2020 identify main shortcoming as followings:

1.     The organization of the educational process:

-       predominance of traditional teaching methods in classes with low occupancy;

-        hypercontrol and low motivation  of students;

-       poor use of information and communication technologies;

-       lack of organization of additional education and cultural centers.

2.     Staffing:

-       untrained teachers to the peculiarities of the organization of educational process in the conditions of ungraded schools;

-       lack of special educational programs for training, retraining and advanced training;

-       inadequate payment systems, lack of motivation and social support for  rural teachers;

3.     Methodological support and software

-       lack of manuals and guidelines for teachers on the organization of educational process in the context of ungraded schools based on modern pedagogical and information and communication technologies;

4.     Material and technical conditions:

-       isolated location;

-       90 schools is in urgent condition;

-       786 school buildings need major repair works;

-       lack of special educational laboratories, modern furniture, hardware, sports equipment, electronic library with a reading room;

-       poor telecommunications infrastructure;

            Additionally, it was mentioned that 948 schools doesn’t have canteens and 822 schools have never seen sport centers and medical offices, moreover Internet connection provided only in 11.5% of upgrades schools, and  more than 2 500  schools doesn’t have physics,  chemistry, biology and informatics classrooms (MEoS, 2010, Kuznetcova, 2012).

To sum up, we can see dramatic realities of small rural communities, which influences to whole socio- economic development of the country. Personally, I would additionally add that rural communities are the symbols of our history, culture, traditions, customs and spiritual life. It is crucial to preserve those schools and make equal access to quality education throughout whole country. If our country can afford EXPO- 2017, why it is not possible to provide each citizen with equal quality education?

References:

Ministry  of  Education and Science (2010). “The concept of development of ungraded schools in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011 – 2020”, Approved by Presidential order 922 on February 2010. Astana: MoES.

Kuznetcova, A.V. (2012). Doklad “Situaciya malokomplektnykh  shkol” (Situation of ungraded schools). Retrieved from < http://wap.gazeta.kz/article/110751/ > on 16^th of April, 2015