Kazakhstan has set itself an ambitious goal: to become a reading nation. In May, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a decree placing the development of reading culture among the country’s national priorities. The policy includes new libraries, a national digital library platform and a Reading Nation concept for 2027–2031.
These are welcome developments. The latest international evidence also suggests that Kazakhstan needs to think carefully about what it means to be a strong reader. Michael Jones. Photo credit: Michael Jones’ personal archive The latest OECD PISA results for Kazakhstan provide an uncomfortable starting point.
In PISA 2025, Kazakhstan’s average reading score was 385, compared with an OECD average of 461. Only 36% of Kazakh 15-year-olds reached at least Level 2 in reading, compared with 69% across the OECD. Almost no students in Kazakhstan reached the highest reading levels.
The more revealing number may be 36%. At Level 2, students should be able to identify the main idea of a moderately long text, locate information using several criteria and reflect on the purpose of a text when directed to do so. Higher levels demand increasingly complex skills, including comparing sources, recognising implicit meaning, separating fact from opinion and judging the reliability of information.
PISA therefore gives us a picture of how confidently young people can use reading to make sense of unfamiliar information. Kazakhstan’s reading difficulties are also longstanding. According to the OECD, reading performance has remained relatively stable since the country first participated in PISA in 2009.
Kazakhstan scored 390 that year. Sixteen years later, it scored 385. The pattern stretches across several generations of students and predates the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent arrival of generative artificial intelligence. Research conducted inside Kazakhstan offers some clues about what may be happening.
Akhmetova, Imambayeva and Csapó examined more than 1,500 Grade 6 and Grade 8 students and found something that complicates the common claim that young people simply lack interest in reading. Around 85% of the Grade 6 students and 79% of the Grade 8 students reported that they enjoyed reading.
Yet the relationship between positive attitudes towards reading and actual reading achievement was relatively weak. Encouraging young people to pick up books clearly has value. Frequency alone tells us little about how readers respond when a text becomes difficult, unfamiliar or open to several interpretations.
Students also need strategies for deciding what deserves attention, how different pieces of information fit together and when a claim should be questioned. Their related work on reading strategies also identified weaknesses in how students approach texts, including deciding which sections deserve closer attention and using information from tables and figures to support understanding.
Modern reading increasingly requires young people to move between an article, a graph, a website and several competing claims before deciding what information can be trusted. Evidence from teachers presents a more encouraging picture. In 2025, Sarmurzin and colleagues surveyed 117 Kazakh literature teachers and interviewed experienced practitioners, finding a growing emphasis on reading comprehension, critical thinking, technology and more student-centred approaches.