According to the Ministry of Education and Science, the requirements of schools for parents to buy workbooks for primary school students are illegal.

"The purchase and use of workbooks is not necessary. This is an additional material for learning, which can be recommended, but not necessary for general application. The requirements for the purchase of workbooks are illegal, so in such cases we will apply the appropriate measures. However, we can not prohibit their use. There are also textbooks for various subjects, which are also optional. Today, parents complain that school backpacks are very heavy because of the abundance of books. This is reasonable, because sometimes the workbook is not smaller than the textbook itself, so now the Ministry of Education and Science together with the Ministry of Healthcare is developing clear standards that should lead to sanitary norms in all textbooks, workbooks and other teaching aids," said Aimagambetov.

During the press conference, the vice minister also said that a new system of certification of pedagogical workers has been introduced in Kazakhstan in 2018, where, depending on the category, wages are rising and a certain surcharge is added to this salary.

"When we talk about wage increases, there are two components. The first is a pay increase for those who work today under the updated programs, and this is 205,000 teachers. They already receive this surcharge, corresponding funds were allocated from the republican budget, transfers were sent to local budgets. As for the second part, it is a surcharge for the category. Now the salary scale of teachers is differentiated and depends on various components," Aimagambetov summed up.

Recall that today at a meeting of the Government chaired by the Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev, the issues of implementing the State Program for the Development of Education and Science for 2016-2019 for the first half year, as well as the results of the unified national testing and the entrance examinations were considered.