President of Kazakhstan instructed to adopt a single standard for the Kazakh writing system to switch to the Latin alphabet by the end of the year

Almaty. April 13. Silkroadnews – Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev instructed to adopt a single standard of the Kazakh writing system till the end of this year to switch to the Latin alphabet, KazTAG writes.

“It is necessary to start work for a phased transition of the Kazakh language to the Latin alphabet. This requires a quiet phasing. (...) In December 2012 in my annual address to the people of Kazakhstan “Kazakhstan-2050” I said: “Starting from 2025 we should switch our writing system over to the Latin alphabet”. This means that from now on we must start the transition to the Latin alphabet in all the areas”, the article by N. Nazarbayev “A Look into the Future: Modernizing Public Consciousness” says.

“In other words, by 2025, office administration, periodicals, textbooks and other materials will be carried out and published using the Latin alphabet. And now we will start preparatory work for switching to the Latin alphabet”, he explained.

The head of state suggested that “by the end of 2017, after consultation with academics and representatives of the public, a single standard for the new Kazakh alphabet and script should be developed. As of 2018 education specialists need to be trained to teach the new alphabet and provide educational textbooks. Within the next two years the necessary organizational and methodological work should be carried out”.
“Indeed, during the adaptation period, the Cyrillic alphabet will work for a certain time”, he added.