Kazakhstan should not abandon the 12-year school education format, since the extra year helps students make more informed decisions about their future. This position was voiced by political analyst Gaziz Abishev, who noted that graduates aged 16–17 are often emotionally immature, infohub.kz reports.

According to the expert, the Ministry of Education is still studying whether 12-year schooling is advisable in Kazakhstan, which has already become an international trend. It is 18-year-old 12th-graders who most often win international olympiads and enroll in the world's leading universities abroad.

At the same time, moving university-level material into secondary school has long been commonplace: trigonometry and integrals were once the domain of scientists, but today ordinary schoolchildren work with them.

"The question is — what's the rush? Today's generations of schoolchildren in developing countries, given the trend toward healthy living and new medical technologies, will likely live far longer than previous generations. A noticeable share of them will be retiring in the 22nd century. They will study for a long time and retrain many times. Plus or minus a year is not critical here," Abishev noted.

Schoolchildren may not be ready

The political analyst added that at 18–19 a person makes decisions about their future more consciously than at 16–18. In addition, 12-year schooling will create a more rational and stable distribution across professions, universities, grants and scholarships.

"If all 8,000 general education schools in Kazakhstan are not yet ready to switch to 12-year schooling, then perhaps we should not cut the schools that are already ready down to their level. They have piloted, certified and proven their programs. Why cut down what has grown, for the sake of total unification?" he added.

The expert concluded that the issue of 12-year education will remain on the agenda in the future as well. However, the main rule here is not to try to fix what is already working successfully.

Earlier, Kursiv wrote that nearly one in three graduates of colleges in blue-collar specialties remains unemployed.