Cooperation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of education with foreign countries: the historiography of the problem in the 1990s-the beginning of the 2000s

The drastic socio-economic and political changes that swept through the post-Soviet space in the last decade of the 20th century had a significant impact on the state of the education system in Kazakhstan. In this article there is considered the historiography of the problem of cooperation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of higher education with foreign countries in the 1990's and early 2000's. Three groups of studies have been selected and analyzed: Soviet, foreign and domestic. A complex analysis of the main works for each group was carried out. The authors come to the conclusion that the problem of the development of international relations in the sphere of education in Kazakhstan has not been practically developed, and this explains the absence of complex works.

Over the short historical period of the development of the Kazakhstani society, international cooperation in the field of education has changed significantly in its essence, the given objectives, pursuing purposes and organizational and legal norms. International cooperation in the process of reforming of the education system is a priority and is a necessary condition for the equal accession of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the world community, because it helps to determine the ultimate purposes and objectives of reforms through the consideration of universally recognized standards of education.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and gaining independence, it became apparent that there was a discrepancy between the objectives facing the state in reforming the country's political and socio-economic life and the availability of personnel capable of carrying out these objectives. By the decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 1993, International Scholarships of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the training of personnel abroad «Bolashak» were established. In April 1997, the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan ratified the Lisbon convention on the recognition of diplomas and qualifications in the sphere of higher education [1]. Guided by the normative act «Regulation on the procedure for the implementation of international cooperation by educational institutions of the Republic of Kazakhstan», approved by the Ministry of education on August 11, 1998, each large university of Kazakhstan opens international departments, joint educational institutions and affiliates with educational establishments of foreign countries are created.

Many states of the world community have turned their attention to a huge educational space which remained self-sufficient in the content of natural science disciplines and extremely inadequate both in terms of the parameters of the content of economic and administrative subjects and in terms of the parameters of state financial provision. The financial support for education and science, which is common in the West, but uncommon for our state, is becoming actual for Kazakhstan, through attracting significant additional funds, in the form of loans, grants, technical and charitable assistance.

The state's policy in the field of education has fundamental importance for social development, the formation of a system of values and moral orientations of the nation. Modern historical science has not yet researched the history of international cooperation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of education, where the state policy in the field of education, aspects of its development, analysis of difficulties and mistakes made at the stage of formation of international ties in the field of education would be objectively reflected.

Moreover, it can be affirmed that the state of Kazakhstan's international relations in the field of education has not been covered considerably in the Kazakhstani historiography, the sources of these processes and the dynamics of the cooperation's development have not also been assessed.

It's required to cover objectively Kazakhstan's first experience of international relations in the sphere of education, which was strictly regulated by all-Union normative acts directed at achieving the ideological and political purposes of the USSR, and the process of formation of new relations between Kazakhstan and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the field of education.

The sizeable lack of laws, a regulatory framework and rules of international cooperation in the first years of independence led to the activation of such a negative phenomena as brain drain, the illegal immigration to Kazakhstan under the pretext of studying, etc. By 1995, there was not even objective statistics on the number of foreign students studying in Kazakhstan's universities.

The given period is interesting due to it's transition, because the initial, conventional world has been destroyed, and significant changes began, including in the sphere of education. At the same time, in order to better understand the state of our modern education system, its positive and negative aspects, it is necessary to analyze the main stages of development, formation, achievements and omissions in this field. Researching these issues within the framework of international cooperation of the sovereign Kazakhstan has become particularly actual.

In recent years there has been a steady increase in the interest of researchers in international relations of the Republic of Kazakhstan with certain countries and states. However, the issues closely related to the cooperation in the field of education, namely in the context of problems of education, in the interaction of the national system of education with the educational structures of other countries, have been omitted in the specific historical analysis.

The study and analysis of international relations in the field of education, their role in training and educating young people, in the development of the country's policy and strategy of education has great a theoretical and practical significance.

The historiography regarding this problem can be divided into 3 groups: soviet, foreign and domestic.

The first group represents the works of Soviet researchers regarding the problems of training and education in the spirit of communism of foreign students who studied at the universities of the former USSR. Mostly, these are the works of Soviet authors of the 1970s-1980s. Among them are the works of A.P. Dyakov «Perfection of the ideological work of the Komsomol organizations with foreign students of higher educational institutions of the USSR (1964-1974)» [2], Yu.P. Kozhaev «International activities of the CPSU to assist in the training of national personnel of specialists for developing countries (on the example of cooperation between the USSR and Afghanistan in the 1920-1980s)» [3], D.S. Captain «The participation of the Byelorussian SSR in the economic and cultural cooperation of the Soviet Union with the developing countries (1960-1970)» [4], etc.

The analysis of the problems examined in them have shown that they are mainly devoted to the methodology and specifics of the education of foreigners, the issues of educational and ideological work with them, as well as the conditions of their way of life and cultural leisure. There have not been covered the events of recent years and have not been addressed the issues of inter-university international cooperation.

The panorama of the evolution of international scientific and educational ties of the Kazakh SSR is not represented in any work. The monograph of K.Zh. Zhamanbaev «Higher school in Kazakhstan» describes the historical experience of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan in governing the higher school, which shows the activities of the CPSU on the creation and development of the higher school of the republic. The main attention in it is given to the activities of party and Soviet bodies in improving the system of education and strengthening the educational and methodological base of higher education institutions [5].

The second group of researches is represented by Russian historiography and works of scientists from the CIS countries.

Problems of international relations in the field of education are examined in the research of V.V. Safonov, where the author pays attention to the study of languages of international communication inthe context of the dialogue of cultures and civilizations [6]. N. Borevskaya studies the education system in the PRC, A. Suprunova — in India. The works of W. Wolfson and Yu. Alferov describes the educational system of the West, mainly the large Western European states and the United States. The scientist G. Mikaberidze is interested in the state of education in Japan and South Korea.

In 1997, A.Yu. Zvyagolsky defended his dissertation on the topic «International cooperation in the field of higher education on the example of universities of the Krasnoyarsk krai». A similar regional aspect has the work of V.A. Stakhanova «Formation, current state and ways of development of the general education system of the Komi Republic» [7].

Such works as «Objective Necessity» (author V.G. Kiniliev) [8], and a three-volume edition of «The university and the market» [9] with the number of articles of rectors and prominent scientists of Russia, devoted to international ties and foreign economic activity of higher education, describe the development of the education system of developing countries and the problems of higher education in developed foreign countries. The work experience of a number of educational institutions described in them and recommendations for the development of this work are undoubtedly arouse interest both in theoretical and in practical terms.

Among the CIS countries, the study of the sphere of education was conducted by scientists from Kyrgyzstan. In particular, it's worth to mention S. Dzhuseubayev's monograph «World tendencies in the development of higher education in the world in the second half of the 20th century», which is devoted to the research of world models of secondary and higher education and main directions of its development. In the work negative and positive aspects of the Soviet education system along with educational systems of the United States, European and Asian countries are considered and analyzed using specific examples and statistical material. Considerable attention is paid to the history of the formation of Western systems, methods of comparative study of educational systems, widely used to shape the strategy of education in the advanced states of the planet [10].

In the early 2000s, the dissertations of K.K. Raiymbekova «The higher education of sovereign Kyrgyz- stan», I.V. Khalansky «The history of international relations of the Kyrgyz Republic in the field of education (1991-1999)» [11], as well as the Tajik scientist A.A. Sharipov «The history of higher education in Tajikistan: experience and problems (the second half of the 40's - the first half of the 90-ies)» were defended [12]. These researches describe the process of formation and development of international relations of republics in the field of education, the activities of international organizations in supporting and developing the education sector

For Kazakhstan's historical science the interest in the above-mentioned topic is a new direction.

The international relations of Kazakhstan in the sphere of education are examined in the studies of M. Iwatova [13]. The author focuses on the development of cooperation in the field of education between Kazakhstan and the United States. Having analyzed the specifics of the education system of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Kazakhstan, A.K. Kusainov tried to conduct comparative analysis [14]. In her dissertation, E.R. Shaimardanova characterizes the sphere of education in the general aspect of Kazakh-American relations [15]. The study of A.P. Liferov, which analyzes the main stages and trends, describes the integration of the world educational space [16]. The work of N.D. Imasheva analyzes the cooperation between Kazakhstan and Turkey, including the aspect of education [17].

The dissertation of A.M. Rakhimzhanova «History of the development of the education system of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the ten-year period of its formation and independence (1991-2001)» stands out separately [18].

The researches of K.Tokayev «Kazakhstan's foreign policy in the conditions of globalization» [19], T. Mansurov «Kazakh-Russian relations in the era of change» [20], G.N. Kim, E.S. Sim «The history of enlightenment of Koreans of Russia and Kazakhstan» [21], M.T. Laumulin «Kazakhstan in contemporary international relations» examine the separate moments of Kazakhstan's international relations in the sphere of education [22].

However, in the given works the international educational ties of Kazakhstan have been considered as an integral part of international economic, political, trade, scientific and cultural relations, and a special, purposeful attention has not been paid to their description and analysis.

The articles of S. Irsaliev «Stages of the formation of international cooperation in the field of educa- tion» and «Higher education system in Canada» arouse a particular interest in the context of international educational ties [23, 24].

Historiographical analysis of the literature shows that the problem of the development of international relations in the sphere of education in Kazakhstan in the 1990s in the early 2000s was not practically developed due to certain objective circumstances. Despite the growing interest of researchers in the development of educational relations of the Republic of Kazakhstan with international organizations, international funds and educational institutions, there is no comprehensive study of these problems in Kazakhstan. Foreign educational systems were only studied partly, however, due to the fact that in those years the Republic was building its national model on the example of Western education, the study of their examples was very important.

References

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