correspondent

According to data Committee for Quality Assurance in Education of the Ministry of Education, the child population of Kazakhstan (under 18 years old) is 6,616,774 children, of which more than 3.7 million schoolchildren, more than 2.5 million children of preschool age, more than 400 thousand students of technical and professional organizations education (TVET).

It is noted that violence against children, aggression and cruelty today are quite widely represented in many areas of a child’s life. The consequences of violence lead to the commission of illegal acts and crimes, the percentage of which has been growing in recent years.

The largest number of registered criminal offenses against children is noted in Turkestan – 213 cases, Almaty – 185 cases and Karaganda regions – 165 cases.

The growth of criminal offenses against children by regions in recent years has been noted in Almaty – by 58.9 percent, from 90 to 143 cases. An increase of 39.4 percent was recorded in the West Kazakhstan region – from 109 to 152 cases. The top three of the leading regions is closed by Pavlodar region, where the growth of crimes against children amounted to 32.8 percent – from 61 to 81 cases.

Further, the western regions are located: in the Mangistau region, the number of crimes against children increased by 21.7 percent – from 69 to 84 cases, in Aktobe – by 14.3 percent – from 84 to 96 cases.

The Ministry of Education listed the problems in the field of child protection:
– there is no network of republican specialized rehabilitation centers for children who have become victims, witnesses of violence, as well as children with self-destructive behavior;
– there is insufficient work with dysfunctional families;
– the work of a social pedagogue has been weakened due to his absence in many educational institutions;
– there is no single vision of maintaining medical and social records, which is aimed at providing comprehensive assistance to the whole family;
– there is no algorithm for the response of state bodies to cases of child abuse and a set of measures to correct the behavior of potential rapists;
– none of the central state bodies has introduced a system of unified accounting of all forms of violence against children;
– social educators and school psychologists are distributed without taking into account the number of children in schools, the heavy workload of these specialists significantly affects the effectiveness of the educational process and the level of well-being of students in the educational organization.

To solve problems, the government of Kazakhstan decided to approve a comprehensive plan to protect children from violence and ensure their rights and well-being for 2023-2025 “Child Protection”. Now the project is at the stage of public discussion. If adopted, it is planned:

– create a network of specialized republican rehabilitation centers for children affected by negative phenomena (violence, crimes against sexual integrity, suicide attempts, drug addiction, alcohol addiction, gambling addiction), in which children can receive effective medical care and long-term rehabilitation;
– to create a single window of the coordination service for responding to the facts of child abuse at PSCs, which will allow citizens to quickly receive public services to eliminate the consequences of physical and moral injuries;
– to implement the project “Social Patronage”, which will allow comprehensive support of children from disadvantaged families with social services. In addition, it is proposed to introduce in each school a mandatory position of a social pedagogue, whose activities will be strictly aimed at ensuring the social well-being of the child;
– develop an interdepartmental program for the prevention and reduction of violence in educational institutions, which will be a methodological support for all teachers working with children;
– to transform the Commission on juvenile affairs and the protection of their rights, since high-profile cases of violence against children require the adoption of immediate prompt response measures by all interested bodies.