ALMATY, JAN. 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s ministry of education ordered universities in Astana to start their academic year for 2017/18 late because of EXPO- 2017 which is scheduled to run from June 10 to Sept. 10.
The education ministry has not explained why it needed students to begin their term late but long-term residents of Astana said it was likely to be to try and reduce pressure on the city’s public services and to reduce traffic on its streets.
Many students are unimpressed.
“Humanly, it is not normal,” saidGabit,a student at one of the medical universities in Astana. “It is inconvenient, for us and for the doctors who teach us since they have to work after shift. They were indignant at first butunfortunately the decree is already released.”
The education ministry was unavailable for the comments.
The organisers of EXPO-2017 have been planning the event for years. They expect thousands of visitors from all around the world to converge on Astana, the Kazakh capital that President Nursultan Nazarbayev built on the windswept steppe in the mid-1990s, for three months, testing its services to the limit.
They are also under extra pressure because Mr Nazarbayev, keen to promote Kazakhstan, has taken a personal interest in EXPO-2017.
Didar Sarsenov who lives in Astana said that he could see why the government wanted to delay tens of thousands of students from returning to the city for their studies.
“On the one side it is the right thing to do, from the other it is not,” he said. “They must cope with the flow of people. But proper organisation (of EXPO-2017) should mean that the study process starts on time.”
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)