Good Governance Matters is the strapline of Nazarbayev University’s Graduate School of Public Policy. But what does “good governance” mean for the citizens of Kazakhstan? If Kazakhstan is to join the top 30 developed countries in the world as set out in the President’s 2050 Strategy, then having high quality public services will be key to achieving this. There are important signs that good things are happening in Kazakhstan in this regard.333472-2
Consider, for example, the recently released global education report card entitled Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the longest running, large scale international assessment of mathematics and science education in the world conducted amongst fourth and eighth grade children in 57 countries. These countries include developed nations such as Australia, Canada, England, France and the USA. The results are hugely encouraging, in that Kazakhstan school children ranked 12th in year four math and eighth in science. Compare this with Australia, where children of the same age ranked 28th and 25th, respectively.