Public administration of education during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Case of the Republic of Kazakhstan

KOŠICKÁ BEZPEČNOSTNÁ REVUE KOSICE SECURITY REVUE Vol. 11, No. 1 (2021), p. 70 – 78 ISSN 1338-4880 (print ver.), ISSN 1338-6956 (online ver.) Public administration of education during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Case of the Republic of Kazakhstan Verejná správa v oblasti vzdelávania počas pandémie Covid-19. Prípad Kazašskej republiky Zhansulu MURATOVA1 1 National University of Public Service The manuscript was received on 03. 03. 2021 and was accepted after revision for publication on 04. 05. 2021 Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought tremendous difficulties in different fields including education. One of the significant challenges is the closure of educational organizations worldwide aiming to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. As a result, the decision has led to urgently changing the format of education. It is widely accepted that distance learning is an appropriate solution in case of emergency and the pandemic is undoubtedly is one of those cases. Accordingly, the Republic of Kazakhstan's government has taken a step to change its traditional format to distance alongside most states. The academic process at all levels of education has been switched to distance since March 2020. The decision to transition to distance education has not been smooth, what is more, it has been accompanied by many challenges. For example, the issue of the digital divide, the quality of education, the lack of communication and the information security problems. This paper aims to present the situation with the transition to distance education in the Republic of Kazakhstan due to the pandemic. Moreover, it intends to introduce the problems that have occurred during the process. Keywords: distance education, traditional education, pandemic, the right to education, Kazakhstan Abstrakt: Pandémia COVID-19 priniesla obrovské problémy v rôznych oblastiach vrátane vzdelávania. Jednou z významných výziev je zatvorenie vzdelávacích organizácií na celom svete, ktorých cieľom je obmedziť šírenie koronavírusu. V dôsledku toho viedlo toto rozhodnutie k naliehavej zmene This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 70 Public administration of education during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Case of the Republic of Kazakhstan Zhansulu MURATOVA formátu vzdelávania. Všeobecne sa uznáva, že dištančné vzdelávanie je vhodným riešením v prípade mimoriadnych situácií a pandémia je nepochybne jedným z takýchto prípadov. V súlade s tým vláda Kazašskej republiky podnikla krok, aby popri väčšine štátov zmenila tradičný formát na diaľkový. Akademický proces na všetkých úrovniach vzdelávania bol od marca 2020 zmenený na dištančný. Rozhodnutie prejsť na dištančné vzdelávanie nebolo hladké, ba čo viac, sprevádzalo ho mnoho výziev. Napríklad otázka digitálnej priepasti, kvalita vzdelávania, nedostatočná komunikácia a problémy s informačnou bezpečnosťou. Cieľom tohto príspevku je predstaviť situáciu s prechodom na dištančné vzdelávanie v Kazašskej republike v dôsledku pandémie. Okrem toho chce predstaviť problémy, ktoré sa počas tohto procesu vyskytli. Kľúčové slová: riziko, analýza rizík, metodika, údaje Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has invoked an enormous challenge to education systems worldwide. Since the coronavirus started spreading, it has become impossible to conduct traditional education. The search for alternative forms of education has started widespread. Distance education has been acknowledged as an alternative option instead of traditional face to face education to ensure the right to education during the pandemic. Although this form of education has started being used widely since the beginning of the pandemic, delivering it to everyone during the pandemic remains difficult. The Republic of Kazakhstan has decided to switch to distance education in March 2020 due to the epidemiological situation in the republic. The students of the country at all levels of education had to shift to the education process through online platforms. Thus, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Skype are the general platforms that are used at educational organizations in the country. Moreover, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan has recommended several educational resources for each level of education. Thus, for school children, for instance, it has been proposed to use the following: «Bilim Media Group», «Daryn Online», «Opiq Platform», «iMektep», and the Platform for learning STEM. Also, Platonus, Univer, Moodle, and Canvas are the platforms that are used at the higher education institutes in the republic. The unusual and unexpected circumstance has been painful for all education process parties: teaching staff, students, and their parents. Due to the new format of education, some individuals have been affected more due to the so-called digital divide or absence of types of equipment (computers, laptops, and smartphones) and adequate Internet connectivity to acquire knowledge at home. This status quo is unacceptable because, firstly, it prevents receiving an equal education among different categories of students. No one can be left behind in education because they do not have access to a computer or online platform. Education should be available to everyone according to the international documents on the protection of human rights and the Constitution of the state. What is more, the conduction of distance education has been passed with the other types of problems. Some of them were in the terms of the information security issues. Based on this supposition, this paper was written in an attempt to present the situation with the transition to distance education during the non-standard condition 71 Public administration of education during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Case of the Republic of Kazakhstan Zhansulu MURATOVA such as the COVID-19 pandemic shown in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Moreover, it was dedicated to introducing the challenges that have occurred during the process. The paper has been divided into four sections. The first part explores distance education in Kazakhstan. The second section focuses on the issues that have appeared due to the transition to distance education such as the digital divide. The third part presents the interview results. The last section . 1. The present situation with distance education in the Republic of Kazakhstan Distance education has been recognized as one of the forms of learning in the Republic of Kazakhstan [1]. It has been acknowledged based on the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Education in 1999. Since then, distance education is significant in the whole educational system of the country. However, it has started being used just recently, specifically, since the beginning of the pandemic [2]. The development of distance education as a goal has been set in the national strategies and programs. For instance, one of the state programs that was aiming to organize distance education was E-learning. The fi (...truncated)