Topical issues of children safeguarding were discussed at an international conference in Astana
15.12.2022
The Year of Children in Kazakhstan: Topical Issues in the Sphere of Children Safeguarding, Key Challenges and Opportunities conference was held on December 10 in Astana with the participation of international experts from the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.
Representatives of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Institute for Economic Research, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Kazakhstan, the Parliament, non-governmenta.organizations, children’s rights ombudsmen, teachers, parents and children’s representatives took part in the conference. The conference participants were welcomed by the Minister of Education Askhat Aimagambetov. He thanked those present for their activity and contribution to the children safeguarding, summed up the Year of Children in Kazakhstan. During the meeting, further actions and approaches to solving topical issues of childhood were considered. Minister of Education Askhat Aimagambetov: “The President of the country proclaimed 2022 the Year of Children. This shows how much attention the state pays to the younger generation and cares about the future of the country. Children are a third of the country’s population. In the Year of Children, measures were taken to improve the nutrition of children in educationa.organizations. Amendments have been made to the Catering Rules in terms of improving the nutrition quality, regulating the cost of food, introducing cashless payment. Public control over school meals has been activated. An equally important area is the provision of comfortable conditions. The Comfortable School National Project has been developed on behalf of the Head of State to eliminate emergency schools, three-shift training and a shortage of schools. According to the program, 401 schools will be built for more than 800 thousand new student places in cities and villages.”  The Minister noted that the next priority in the Year of Children was to ensure the safety of children in kindergartens, schools and colleges. Cameras have been installed in all educational institutions, work is underway to strengthen the guarding of educationa.organizations, turnstiles and alarm buttons are being installed. In the Year of Children, for the first time, the right of the child to be protected from bullying was vested, the competence was introduced to develop the relevant Prevention Rules, which will allow timely warning and providing the necessary assistance to children who have been bullied. Besides, uniform Rules for the activities of the psychological service of educationa.organizations were adopted this year. The Child Wellbeing Index has first been developed in the country. In each direction, the most important indicators reflecting access to decent living conditions, education, healthcare, infrastructure, protection from violence and socialization have been selected. This was told by Ruslan Sultanov, Chairman of the Board of Institute for Economic Research JSC: “If we calculate the local budget expenditures for one child - on average, they amount to about KZT 511 thousand per year. The leader in this indicator is the North Kazakhstan region, where more than KZT 800 thousand are directed to the needs of children. In general, work on the implementation of the budget tool for children continues - on the part of the Institute and our partners, the Committee for Children Rights Protection of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the UN Children’s Fund, it is planned to train employees of central and local executive bodies by the end of the year. The Index will be calculated annually, so we hope that the first results received today will motivate us to improve them, as well as work to improve the Index. To do this, with the support of ITC LLP, we are going to develop an online platform that will reflect the results of the Index. From 2023, it is planned to cover districts, small and single–industry towns of Kazakhstan with the index, then move towards the level of villages. With the support of central and local executive bodies, it is necessary to introduce a budget tool for children into the country’s Budget Process.”  The implementation of the model for the development of preschool education and studying continued. This is the expansion of the network of preschoo.organizations, the development of a platform for a single queue for kindergartens, which will eliminate duplication in the queue. In addition, the Psychological, Medical and Pedagogical Commission (PMPC) module has been developed, which provides for the automation of registration of children with disabilities. The standards for opening 1 PMPC have been reduced from 60,000 to 50,000 children. At the same time, in the Year of Children, the school bus fleet has first been updated on a large scale. It was replenished with 515 new vehicles. The material and technical base of school libraries has fleet been comprehensively improved. The Fund of Fiction has been replenished with publications in the state language. UN Permanent Coordinator in the Republic of Kazakhstan Michaela Friberg-Storey thanked the conference hosts and positively assessed the activities of the Ministry in the children safeguarding matters: “I am pleased to participate in today’s conference. It is very good that this conference is attended by children’s representatives who work to protect the rights of their peers. The country pays particular attention to the well-being of children in all spheres of their life. Investment in children is an investment in the future. Kazakhstan is taking effective measures in this direction. As the Minister of Education said, the work performed in the Year of Children will be continued in subsequent years. We are ready to cooperate.”  Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the Republic of Kazakhstan Arthur van Diesen stressed that Kazakhstan is taking progressive steps to ensure the protection of the interests of children and improve their well-being: “UNICEF in Kazakhstan has been supporting the creation of a children well-being monitoring system both at the national and local levels for a long time. We hope that central and local executive bodies will use the Child Wellbeing Index as a working tool, a kind of compass pointing to problematic issues. It will help to make decisions in the interests of children based on objective indicators.” 
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