On July 5, the main Unified National Testing was completed in Kazakhstan. The exam for schoolchildren was held in electronic format on the principle of "1 computer - 2 cameras - 1 test taker". Details on how the testing was held, told at a briefing in the SCC Vice-Minister of Science and Higher Education Kuanysh Ergaliev and Director of the National Testing Center of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan Ruslan Yemelbaev.

So, 162 thousand applicants passed the UNT 291 thousand times, taking into account two attempts. Recall, examiners have 2 attempts to pass the UNT and with the best result to participate in the competition for the award of educational grants.

"According to the results of testing the threshold score scored about 135 thousand applicants. This is about 83% of the total number of participants. This indicator increased by 16% compared to last year's result (in 2022 - 67%). The average UNT score amounted to 73 points, which is 7 points higher than the previous year (in 2022 - 66 points). Five people showed the highest result, scoring 137 points. 2868 applicants scored over 120 points," the Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kuanysh Yergaliev informed.

As for the language of testing, about 75.16% of graduates passed UNT in the Kazakh language, 24.74% in Russian, 0.1% in English.

Testing was conducted in five subjects: three compulsory and two specialized subjects. The number of test tasks - 120, including 20 on the history of Kazakhstan, 15 on mathematical literacy, 15 on reading literacy and 35 tasks on two specialized subjects. The duration of testing is 4 hours (240 minutes).

There was also an additional 40 minutes for children with special educational needs. Questions without charts and diagrams were developed for them. Thanks to the measures taken this year, the number of children with special educational needs who took part in the UNT amounted to 478 people.

Next, Kuanysh Yergaliyev told about the reception of applications for participation in the grant competition. This year's admission campaign will be carried out from July 13 to July 20. 

For the convenience of applicants from remote regions will work online submission of applications through the eGovernment portal eGov. Also for those who wish to submit documents offline, the admission committees of higher education institutions are functioning. It is possible to submit documents offline through any university. For example, an applicant from Aktau, who wants to enter Almaty, does not necessarily need to travel across the country to apply, he can do it online through eGov or offline through the local university.

This year, 73 thousand grants have been allocated for undergraduate studies. On the instructions of the Head of State, 60% of all grants were allocated to engineering and technical specialties. 

The largest number of grants was received by the groups of educational programs "Engineering, manufacturing, construction industries", their number is 18,744. Then "Pedagogical Sciences" - 12 560 grants, "Information and Communication Technologies" - 10 103 grants, "Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics" - 7 388 grants. For those entering under the Serpin program, 3,653 grants have been allocated.

"In addition, 5,000 grants have been allocated to youth from densely populated, western and newly created regions. The grants were distributed in the following way: Atyrau region - 1500, Mangystau region - 1500, Ulytau region - 300, Zhetisu region - 300, Abay region - 500, Shymkent city - 400, Turkestan region - 500 grants. They are allocated for pedagogical, engineering, IT specialties and natural sciences," Kuanysh Yergaliyev said.

This year, the pedagogical quota increased by 47%. In addition, for the first time in the pilot mode, a special quota has been allocated to support agricultural and engineering areas. These grants will be placed in regional universities. 

In general, most of the changes this year are made in order to support regional universities. 1/3 of the country's students study in Almaty, and 35 universities are located there. This in turn leads to a shortage of dormitories.

"We recommend today's applicants to enter regional universities: firstly, the quality is not inferior, secondly, there are no problems with dormitories. Another possibility is that branches of foreign universities are opened on the basis of regional universities. Special grants are provided for them," Deputy Minister of Science noted.

To enroll in domestic universities, applicants need to provide an ID card, UNT certificate, 3×4 photo, a certificate of secondary education (diploma for graduates of TVET organizations), a medical certificate in the form № 075/u, military enlistment certificate for young men. Other supporting documents will also be needed to participate in the grant competition for privileged categories.

Special quotas of the total number of grants are allocated annually. This year, seven quotas for socially vulnerable categories of citizens have been retained. Also, since last year, the rural quota has been determined at the rate of 35%.

Traditionally, the list of names of educational grant holders will be published by August 10. Admission of documents to universities will be carried out until August 25.

The director of the National Testing Center Ruslan Emelbaev told about the innovations that were applied this year. 

First, changes were made in the number of test tasks in the subjects "History of Kazakhstan" and "Reading Literacy". Thus, in one version of "History of Kazakhstan" there will be 20 test tasks, in "Reading Literacy" - 15.

Secondly, from the 2022-2023 academic year, the list of combinations of UNT profile subjects includes the subject "Informatics". In this regard, applicants to the groups of educational programs "Computer Science Teacher Training", "Information Technology", "Information Security" will take the UNT in the combination of subjects "Mathematics-Informatics".

"This year, most applicants chose the combination of "Mathematics-Physics" - 19%, 17% - "Biology-Chemistry", 13% - "Creative", 10% - "Mathematics-Informatics," Yemelbaev said.

As it was said earlier, about 135 thousand applicants have reached the threshold score, which is about 83% of the number of all test takers. Of the 47 thousand applicants who chose "Mathematics-Physics", the threshold score scored 74%. Also of 40 thousand children who chose the combination of "Biology-Chemistry", the threshold score was 77%.

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education and NCT are constantly working to create comfortable conditions not only during the test itself, but also before it. Therefore, for the convenience of applicants this year was launched a trial online test to prepare for the UNT. This allowed applicants to check the level of their knowledge. Free online lessons were held with the support of educational centers. At the beginning of the academic year, the website of the National Testing Center published test specifications for each subject, a test plan, 100 dates for the subjects "History of Kazakhstan" and "World History", a list of terms in three languages in computer science, a list of works on Kazakh literature and Russian literature. SMS-notification was launched with a reminder of the selected date, time, place and specialized subjects of UNT. SMS-notification was received not only by UNT participants, but also by their parents or legal representatives.

"During the testing, a calculator, Mendeleev's and Solubility of Salts tables were available on computer screens. Taking into account the opinions and wishes of the applicants, their paper version was issued. Participants who pass informatics in Russian will have a translation of terms in Kazakh and English, those who pass in Kazakh - in Russian and English, those who pass in English - in Kazakh and Russian. After completion of testing for each subject, a thematic analysis is available. It allows you to see not only the test results, but also the topics where mistakes were made. This gives an opportunity to better prepare for the second attempt of UNT," the Director of the National Testing Center of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan said.

Ensuring academic integrity remains important during the UNT. To this end, the principle of "1 computer - 2 cameras - 1 test taker" is preserved. Previously, the testing process was monitored by only one camera located above each computer, but now there is a second (front) camera, which allows to identify the person and prevent access of unauthorized persons. As a result of the measures taken, there were no instances of face swapping in 2023. While 18 such cases were detected in 2021 and 1 in 2022.

It is also worth noting that since last year test variants have been labeled. That is, each UNT participant will have his or her own personal version of the test.

During the period of the Unified National Testing, 402 people were deprived of the opportunity to take the test because of attempts to carry smartphones, cheat sheets and other prohibited items. 312 applicants were removed from the classrooms for violating the rules during the test itself, and their results were also canceled. Hidden cameras, micro-headphones, smartphones and other prohibited items were seized from some applicants. 

"We will analyze all the videos by October 31 this year. If the use of prohibited items is found, the test results will be canceled, up to and including the revocation of the educational grant award. If you remember, this rule was applied for the first time in 2020. Then after viewing the video recordings, the results of 152 test takers were canceled, in 2021 - 52 people, in 2022 - 217. This practice will be continued this year. Throughout the preparation and passing of the UNT, we have repeatedly urged applicants to be academically honest. This will allow them to become good specialists in the future," Yemelbayev explained.

The format and time of testing remained unchanged. Due to the transfer to the electronic format of testing, the procedure of filing an appeal has become easier. Test takers do not need to wait for the next day to file an appeal. It can be done within 30 minutes after completion of testing. During the main UNT-2023 more than 50 thousand applications were received and 805 of them were satisfied.

#Education #Ministry of Education