Kazakhstan prosecutors propose new school deputies to combat bullying
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Prosecutors in Kazakhstan are proposing a nationwide expansion of a new deputy principal position for legal affairs to protect students from violence.
This initiative follows an investigation in the Zhambyl region where children reported beatings and extortion involving weapons like brass knuckles and stun guns, despite school records showing no such incidents.
An interagency team identified more than 200 cases of bullying and extortion in the Baizak and Zhambyl districts alone, a period during which the region recorded 14 minor suicides. The Prosecutor General’s Office claims the new role, which has already been implemented in 190 schools in the Zhambyl region, helped reduce crimes involving minors. Specifically, the office reported a 24.7% fall in crimes against minors and a 54.5% drop in sexual offenses in that region.
However, the office did not provide specific comparison periods or school-level data to confirm how much of the decline resulted directly from the new positions. Concerns remain regarding how schools will handle violence and whether the new deputies can act independently. In the past, school administrators faced penalties in performance rankings for recorded offenses, which gave them an incentive to hide incidents.
While prosecutors removed this indicator from the evaluation system in November 2024, inspections in late 2025 still uncovered violence that children only disclosed after outside specialists intervened. Critics note that children often distrust adults or prefer to report issues to teachers rather than the police, and teachers may still prefer to resolve serious conflicts internally to protect a school's reputation.
