In order to keep the UK education sector updated on the market changes, priorities and give an overview of the situation with Covid-19 in Wider Europe, the International Education Services team in the region is pleased to present you with the following news. 

In this update we will give you an overview of the situation with Covid-19 in the Wider Europe countries, the pandemic effect on the education system, economy and other key areas of countries' development. 

Here are the changes at a glance: 

Kazakhstan – vaccination campaigns going on, academic year finished, gradual relaxation of restrictive measures, state tests to last all summer, Bolashaq recruits scholars

Turkey - Covid-19 daily cases dropped down to 6K levels, measures are weakened and planned to be lifted by the beginning of July.

Russia - graual increase of Covid-19 cases, vaccination campaign rapidly reaching more people, economic outlook on Rouble's position against foreign currencies

Kazakhstan

Update 11 June

Kazakhstan declared a state of emergency to curb the spread of the Covid-19 infection on 16 March through 11 May after the World Health Organization defined the spread of the coronavirus as a pandemic.

Since then, Kazakhstan has seen a number of restrictive measures being taken in order to hold the spread of virus, yet it had to allow businesses to reopen by following some sanitary requirements which include social distancing, wearing masks, limited number of people in one room, etc.

Quick summary in June:

• Kazakhstan still divides the country into red, yellow and green zones. Most of the zones are now are either yellow or green except for Nur-Sultan, which still produces high number of new Covid-19 infections.  
• The current total number of Covid-19 infected cases (including recovered/deceased) has reached over 452,000 people since the beginning of pandemic in March 2020.
• Public places are opened with safety measures being taken into serious consideration. There is an application called ‘Ashyq’ that is used to allow entry to public places. It is a state-owned mobile application that is being used to identify potential carriers of the infection via big data, geolocation and visit history. The app has come in for criticism by the general public for how the personal data of users is processed and treated, yet the app is being pushed to be used by businesses, education institutions and other public places.  
• The vaccination campaign is ongoing. At the moment Kazakh nationals have a choice of three available vaccines: Sputnik V (Russia), Sinopharm Vaccine (UAE/China) and locally produced QazVac vaccine. As of 15 June, over 12.4% of all Kazakhstan population, i.e. 2.5 million, have been vaccinated either with the first or both jabs. The number of fully vaccinated people is now 1.35 million.

School and universities

The academic year in Kazakhstan has mostly come to its end. School students were sent on summer break, school leavers have taken their test and are now busy with their applications to HEIs. Here is more in detail:

• ‘Last Bell’, a ceremony held in Kazakhstan on 25 May to celebrate the end of academic year, took place with heightened sanitary measures. School leavers were only allowed to invite one of their parents or family members to chaperone them at the ceremony, and the event was held in an open-air environment.  
• Unified National Testing (UNT), a state matriculation test in Kazakhstan, is ongoing. This year it is expected that over 120,000 school leavers will take the test within the three months. Due to Covid-19 limitations, the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan (MoES) introduced some changes in the delivery of test:

1. The test was moved from pen & paper to computer based testing
2. UNT is going to take more than the usual two weeks: because of Covid-19 the MoES have had to limit the number of pupils can take the test at a time, now the testing will last three months.
3. Historically school leavers were given only one chance to take the test, yet now test takers will have two attempts to take UNT.

• school textbooks for the following academic year will have been issued by 20 June as ordered by the Minister of Education and Science of Kazakhstan. Previously the books were issued to students right before the new academic year start, but according to the Minister, having the books in advance will give students opportunity to better prepare for the new academic year.

The Ministry of Education and Science is not very much excited with the idea of delivering the next academic year online, that’s why the head of MoES invited all teaching staff and students to get inoculated with one of the available Covid-19 vaccines. He noted that it is important that the involvement of all stakeholders for the reopening of educational institutions is crucial.

Vice-Minister Miras Daulenov has left his post and was recently announced the President of Narxoz University, a higher education establishment in Almaty. The new Vice-Minister is to be announced in due course.

Majilis, the lower house of Kazakhstan’s Parliament, has signed off a new legislation on inclusive education that would allow disabled children to do early diagnosis, correction and equal opportunities to study at state compulsory education institutions. The legislation has now been passed over to Senate, the upper house, for review and sign off.

Student financial support

The Bolashaq Presidential Scholarship programme has started collecting applications for funding in 2021/22. The programme is going to fund up to 1,055 this year with 500 of them being dedicated for scholars and researchers only.  

The new list of Bolashaq approved institutions containing of 207 institutions for across the globe was announced early May this year; 29 UK institutions entered that list.

Economic situation

By the end of 2020 fiscal year, Kazakhstan’s economy shrank by 3.8%, says Eurasian Development Bank.

The World Bank predicts that the economy of Kazakhstan will grow by 2.5% in 2021, whilst the Eurasian Development Bank analysts predict an increase in aggregate GDP by 3.2% in 2021.

The Minister of the National Economy Ruslan Dalenov presented draft amendments to the law on the restoration of economic growth at the plenary session of the Senate. The amendments focus on the attraction of investment, development of entrepreneurship and the real sector, stabilisation of the financial market, digitalisation, project management, as well as improvement of monetary, social and trade policies.

Interesting to read:

According to the Bureau of National Statistics, over 29.1 thousand Kazakhstanis emigrated from Kazakhstan in 2020 and around 11.4 thousand people came to live in the country.

This shows that the difference between the immigrants and emigrants was 17.6 thousand people. For the first time in recent years, the number of emigrants decreased by 35.6%.

Country activities:

• Digital Marketing Services – more details upon request

Contact

For more information and insights about the Covid-19 situation in Kazakhstan, please contact Zhanaidar Duzgenbay, International Education Services Coordinator, Kazakhstan at Zhanaidar.Duzgenbay@britishcouncil.org.

Russia

Update 11 June 

Covid-19

Over the past weeks Covid-19 cases have been gradually increasing in Russia. On June 10 the country confirmed 11,699 new coronavirus cases — the first time new infections have surpassed 11,000 since March 6 — and 383 deaths. Of the total cases, 5,245 are in Moscow alone, with cases in the Russian capital rising 27% in the past day. In light of the raising cases, Moscow authorities announced to reopen field hospitals and step up mask and glove enforcement.  

Vaccination

The mass national vaccination campaign started on January 18, 2021. Over the past six months, Russia's largest cities have been offering vaccines to all population. However, the pace of vaccination is very slow in comparison to the Western countries. As of 7 June 2021, only 17.67 million people have received at least one dose, with only 13.38 million people having been fully vaccinated with two doses.    

There is a low level of trust towards the Sputnik V vaccine among the Russian population, and people are generally reluctant to have it. The April’s opinion poll on the willingness to get a vaccine shows that only 26 percent of Russians would agree to participate in the vaccination with the Sputnik V vaccine. The share of respondents, who certainly did not want to receive the vaccine in the near future, was recorded at over 60 percent.

Economic Outlook

Global GDP growth is forecast to recover to 4 percent in 2021 and to moderate to 3.8 percent in 2022. However, Covid-19 pandemic continues to disrupt activity across the world, casting wide uncertainty around GDP projections.

Baseline Russian GDP growth is forecasted at 3.2 percent in 2021, followed by 3.2 and 2.3 percent in 2022 and 2023, respectively. This baseline scenario assumes gradual decline in new Covid-19 cases. Global economic recovery, higher oil prices, and soft domestic monetary conditions in 2021 are expected to support a recovery to be led by household consumption and public investment.

Employment in Russia is still below pre-pandemic levels, however the labor market began showing some signs of improvement by the end of 2020.[ii]

Currency rate

The exchange rate of the U.S. dollar to the Russian ruble dropped to 75.2 in April 2021. However, with the growth of the world economy, the analysts in general expect a slight strengthening of the Russian currency during 2021.  In April 2021 the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia has issued a forecast of the average dollar rate in the coming years. According to the forecast, the dollar exchange in 2021 will average 73.3 Russian rubles, in 2022 - 71.8, in 2023 - 72.6, in 2024 - 73.6 Russian rubles. 

International flights

Russia has resumed flights with the United Kingdom on June 10, 2021.

Impact of COVID-19 on Russian HE

The HE sector in Russia was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic significantly. The forced transition imposed new demands on faculty and students, who had to quickly adapt to the new educational conditions. These changes raised concerns about the quality of distant learning. A survey conducted by a group of scientists of the HSE University and the Ural Federal University found significant concerns expressed by students and teachers about classes going online. 70% of teachers in the survey found the online format inconvenient and uncomfortable for them. Among the concerns reported by the students were: the ability to comprehend the material, limited student-teacher communication, low motivation and poor self-management skills. More than half (57%) of all respondents expected the quality of education to deteriorate unless the universities returned to full-time offline classes soon.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the deadlines for achieving the National Development Goals, including the national project "Education," in which Russian education should enter the top ten countries in the world in terms of the quality of general education, have been reset from the initial 2024 target to 2030. This change is reflected in the President’s decree adjusting Russia's national development goals to 2030.

English in the Unified State Exam (EGE)

The Ministry of Education has officially excluded foreign languages from the list of mandatory state exams (EGE) that every student must pass after graduation from school to enter a university.

Among the mandatory subjects for the state exams are currently Russian language and math. Foreign languages - English, German, French, Spanish or Chinese - were included in the list of optional subjects.

The Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science commented that the decision was influenced by the fact that there is an inequality in the level of teaching foreign languages in Russian schools. “If in the big cities there is not only a good level of teaching, but also opportunities to practice the language, while in the remote schools, which we have a lot, there are zero opportunities to practice the language,” explained the head of the Federal Service Anzor Muzaev.

Irina Lukyanova, a teacher, and a columnist for "Novaya Gazeta" points out that such a decision is very convenient to cover up the problem of the poor teaching of foreign languages ​​in Russian schools. She gives an example of the lack of foreign language teachers in the remote schools, where a teacher comes to a village school from a regional or district school once a week to give lessons to all schoolchildren of different ages at once. The author writes that highly qualified teachers prefer not to remain long in extremely bureaucratized schools but tend to leave to work as language tutors at private language schools. Lukyanova concludes that it is obvious to everyone that the mandatory exam in foreign languages on a national scale will bring the most disastrous results.

Turkey

Update 11 June

The number of Covid-19 cases have dropped to 6K from 60K (highest recorded on 20 April) as of 9 June 2021.

As of 1 June, Turkey weakened the restrictions, and all businesses resumed their operations. However, public events including, concerts, cinemas, theatres and sport activities are still banned. As per the new normalisation rules, the curfew enforced during weekdays has been curbed to start at 22.00 pm and end at 05.00 am. The curfew will take effect from 22.00 pm on Saturday to 05.00 am on Monday. All restaurants are now allowed to serve in-person to stay open between 07.00 am and 21.00 pm all week except Sundays. The measurements will be reassessed in July based on the rate of fatalities, infections, and vaccinations.

Until 30 June, passengers must have a negative PCR test taken at most 72 hrs before arrival. Passengers arriving from a country other than Egypt, Iran, Singapore or the United Kingdom could be subject to a PCR test at their final destination in Turkey.

From 8 June, direct flights can arrive in England from Turkey, but they must arrive at dedicated terminals at Heathrow and Birmingham airports. Different requirements may apply for arrivals into Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

While normalisation started, Turkey mass vaccination with Chinese Sinovak and Pfizer’s BioNTech are in progress, and over 20 per cent of the total population has been vaccinated as of 9 June. Turkey plans to complete the vaccination by the end of June.

Economic outlook in Turkey

The Turkish Lira continues losing value against foreign currencies. TRY devalued 35 per cent against Sterling in the last one year.

The economy of Turkey has grown by 7 percent in Q1 of 2021, sources stated, which was slightly above the expectations. According to experts, consumption of citizens and investments were effective in achieving this growth rate, which made Turkey go one step ahead among other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The 7 percent growth in Q1 was the highest growth figure since the Q1 of 2018.

According to Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) data, the rise in inflation slowed down last month, consumer prices increased by 0.89 percent in May compared to April, annual inflation went down from 17.14 percent to 16.59 percent, and core inflation amounted to 16.99 percent.

Turkey will be introducing crucial measures against inflation, which is one of the most important items of the economic reform plan, this year. Early Warning System, coordinated by the Central Bank of Turkey (CBRT) will be implemented by 30 September.

Schools and universities

Over 26 million students are affected by Covid-19, including 18 million school students and 8 million higher education students.
Schools

Schools reopened as of 1 June. Face-to-face education resumed two days a week in kindergartens and elementary schools in all provinces and five days a week in villages and small towns from June 1. Middle and high schoolers returned to face-to-face education as of 7 June.

The Ministry of National Education (MoNE) announced “I’m in for Compensation Too” programme, aimed at compensating for the negative impact of the pandemic on countrywide education within a year and a half. The ministry is currently working to enrich educational content with more social, emotional, physical, cultural and artistic activities.

Turkey’s annual high school entrance was held on 6 June with 1.2 million eighth graders signing up for the central test.

Students will receive their diplomas by 18 June and the second term will end by 2 July. However, schools remain open offering social and academic activities for students until the new term’s start. Students will be supported academically to make up their lessons during the pandemic in the next term.

Universities

Education is continuing remotely. Universities will be re-open for face-to-face education as of 13 September.

The nationwide university entrance exam will be held on 26-27 June 2021.

International Student Mobility

U.S. Consulate visa section is planning to resume their visa services. Date hasn’t been announced yet.

UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI)

Visa Application Centres (VACs) resumed their operation with reduced working hours as before. The VACs in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir are open three days a week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Contact

British Council direct marketing services, including digital promotion, remain available to help the UK institutions engage with students and retain a presence in Turkey.

For more information, please contact Semra Yalcin Dogan, Education Manager at Semra.Yalcin@britishcouncil.org.tr