Kazakhstan's Program forInternational Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 performanceimproved markedly compared to 2009, and indicated anarrowing achievement gap among students. Math and scienceperformance improvements equivalent to more than half a yearof schooling were achieved. According to the OECD, 40 pointsin PISA is equivalent to what students learn in one year ofschooling. The improvements reduced the gap with othercountries in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) by almost half.Moreover, the performance improvements of the lowestachievers in 2009 and 2012 outpaced those of their higherachieving peers at a rate that compares favorably againstOECD countries. However, performance on reading improvedonly marginally and overall reading achievement remainedlow, with some groups of students actually performing worsein 2012. Kazakhstan's PISA performance places itsignificantly behind other countries, especially in reading.Countries with income per capita levels similar toKazakhstan's (namely Turkey and Russia) performedsignificantly better in math, science, and reading. Mostimportantly, Kazakh reading scores still lag about one yearof schooling behind the ECA average and almost two years ofschooling behind OECD. Public expenditures on education arelowest in Kazakhstan compared with other PISA 2012participating countries, which likely hampers thecountry's ability to ensure effective learning for all.Any increase in public spending on education will have to bealigned with careful policy reform decision making, sinceresources alone do not guarantee attainment of desirededucation outcomes.
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