According to the Institute of Economic Research, 337.08 bn tenge — 0.5% of GDP — was spent on preschool education in 2021. International benchmarks are considerably higher.
The Institute of Economic Research analysis of 3 July 2023 gives further figures describing the sector: gross enrolment of children aged 0–6 was 52.8% in 2021; the waiting list stood at 283,637 children, or 11% of those aged 1–6; the number of state kindergartens fell 16.3% between 2016 and 2021, from 7,074 to 5,898; and 65.5% of preschool teachers held appropriate credentials while 51.3% had no qualification category.
The international benchmarks should be named precisely. UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Centre, in Report Card 8 (2008), proposed spending at least 1% of GDP on early childhood services as a minimum benchmark — a benchmark set for economically advanced countries. In A World Ready to Learn (2019), UNICEF called on governments to commit at least 10% of national education budgets to early childhood education; the global average in 2017 was 6.6%.
The Asyl Urpaq concept sets a goal of raising financing to 1–2% of GDP and points to several routes: amending the funding methodology through the public-private partnership mechanism; where public funding falls short, developing off-budget market instruments — specialised trust and savings funds, cooperatives — jointly with international development institutions; and developing a tax-relief mechanism for enterprises that build preschools or fund them charitably.
