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In the popular movie, Borat, Kazakhstan comes in for pretty shabby treatment. A more evenhanded look at Kazakhstan can be found in the UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Childhood (“Ensuring Equitable Access to Preschool Education: Kazakhstan’s Experience”; July-August 2005).

The paper points out that early childhood education has undergone significant ups and downs in the recent past. Before the fall of the Soviet empire, all children in Kazakhstan, regardless of their regional and social backgrounds, had universal access to state preschool services. But after the Soviet collapse, many preschool organizations were closed; programs in the rural areas, where 51% of preschool children reside, were particularly hard hit.

To mitigate the collapse of preschool education, the Kazak government, in 1999, made one year of pre-primary education free and compulsory. [This was even before many U.S. states implemented sweeping Pre-K systems!] The policy has been effective. The enrolment rate of 5- and 6-year olds in pre-primary education grew steadily from 45% in 2000 to 51% in 2003. But a close examination of enrolment patterns reveals that children in rural areas are most likely attending half-day programs while their urban counterparts participate predominantly in full-day programs. In addition, participation of children in rural areas in all other forms of preschool education is lagging that of children in urban areas.

The paper concludes, “Supporting the development and education of disadvantaged children is a challenge for many governments. Often, with few resources available, not many options are available. While low-cost alternative services can be a useful strategy, they can fail to bridge the quality gap, especially in regard to a smooth transition …within different stages of early childhood.”

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