Kazakhstan has provisions for ECCE for children aged 2-6 years old in its Law on Education. A significant portion of ECCE institutions were closed down in the 1990s, and while the government has tried to make up for lost ground, work remains to be done. The present system only provides programmes for children aged 5/6. These programmes became free and compulsory in 1999 through the Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the Issues of Children’s Compulsory Pre-Primary Preparation and were intended to fill the void after the large-scale closure of preschools (UNESCO 2005). Similar to other countries in Central Asia, significant disparities persist between the rural and urban areas in terms of access and quality.

Kazakhstan inherited the best developed ECCE system of all the former Soviet states with an evenly distributed network of ECCE institutions between the rural and the urban areas. During the period of transition however, 7 out of 8 (formerly state-owned) providers were shutdown. The majority of the institutions that suffered closures were located in rural areas. The government has worked to increase the number of ECCE establishments (from 1,095 in 2002 to 1,327 in 2006), which has led to the rise in enrolment rates from 11% in 1999 to 39% in 2009 (UIS 2009). The demand for ECCE institutions still remains high and the government estimates that there are up to 130 children for every 100 spots. In addition, while ECCE organizations are free on paper, families are expected to pay in order to have access to extra services. Studies also estimate that ECCE institutions are three times more accessible to children in urban areas. The supplementary costs, combined with the inaccessibility of kindergartens in rural areas, prevent significant numbers of children from benefiting from ECCE services (UNESCO 2008). Moreover, since the population of ethnic Russians is largely confined to urban centres, higher enrolment rates in ECCE are expected for Russian children, although no official statistics document this phenomenon.

There is a demand for more comprehensive ECCE programmes, placing a greater emphasis on providing holistic development (UNESCO 2005). The current programmes have endeavoured to respond by offering health services, nutrition, specialist teachers, gyms, swimming pools, etc. Substantive changes have been made to the curricula, making them more modern and child-friendly. However, because few rural schools were benefiting from these improvements, the government introduced two measures to help prepare children from disadvantaged rural areas for primary school: Pre-Primary Education Classes (PPEC) and Pre-Primary Education Groups (PPEG). PPEC are 32-week courses for children who have not had any prior ECCE training; PPEG are full-day pre-primary programmes. PPEG enrolment in rural areas is at 3% compared to 36% in urban areas, while enrolment in shorter PPEC is significantly higher in rural areas (43% compared to 20% in urban setting) (UNESCO 2006). Institutions in rural areas are disadvantaged in terms of physical infrastructure and in attracting qualified teaching personnel. Incentives are needed to attract qualified teachers to rural areas in order to bridge the regional disparities in ECCE. In addition, enrolment in preschool of children with special needs remains very low (UNESCO 2005).

The majority of ECCE services are public and the MoES is responsible for both policy development and provision or ECCE. The MoES also inspects privately-owned preschool organizations and those run by NGOs. However, public investment in ECCE is declining, which has resulted in two noticeable trends: even in public institutions, the fees for basic ECCE services are increasingly being paid for by parents and the number of private establishments is growing. The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection is in charge of providing ECCE services for children with disabilities (UNESCO 2005). It also provides funding for programmes targeting low-income families.

The key policy changes in ECCE are outlined in the Concept of Education Development in the Republic of Kazakhstan up to 2015 and the State Programme of Development of Education in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2005-10. One of the strategies includes expanding preschool programmes to children aged 5 and under. The government emphasizes that both children in rural as well as urban areas will be covered. The content of preschool initiatives and approaches will also be designed with the younger age-group in mind. Continued importance will be placed on holistic development that combines health and educational programmes. Another state priority centres on providing special inclusive initiatives for children with special needs. In addition, the Balapan Programme for Provision of Children with Pre-school Education for 2010-14 seeks to meet the demand of the population for quality services of pre-school education. Overall, the government plans to increase the net coverage of ECCE for children aged 3-6 years old to 70% by 2015 (Massimov n.d.).