Ashat Aimagambetov

Ashat Qanatūly Aimağambetov (; , ; born 14 June 1982) is a Kazakh politician who's currently serving as a Member of the 8th Mäjilis and the Chairman of the Committee for Social and Cultural Development of the Mäjilis. He's mostly known for his work as the Minister of Education and Science of Kazakhstan from June 2019 to January 2023. On June 11, 2022 the ministry was split in two separate ones, and Aimağambetov lead the Ministry of Education until January 2023.

Biography

Early life and education Aimagambetov was born in the village of Aqsu-Aiuly in the Karaganda Region. In 2003 he graduated from the Karagandy State University with a degree in history. In 2006 he graduated from the Karagandy Institute of Actual Education with a degree in jurisprudence.

Career From 2002 to 2004, Aimagambetov was an employee of the KarGU. In 2003, he became a member of the Karaganda City Maslihat where he served as a chairman of the Standing Commission on Social Issues.

From June 11, 2022 to January 4, 2023, he served as the first Minister of Education.

Since February 2023, he is a lecturer at the KAZGUU University.

On 29 March 2023, he was officially sworn in as a Member of the Mäjilis. He was then placed as the Chairman of the Committee for Social and Cultural Development.

Controversies Proposal on LGBT censorship law

In April 2024, Aimagambetov, with a fellow Mäjilisman Janarbek Äşimjanov, proposed to alter the "On mass media" law in a way that would prohibit the mentions of LGBT people throughout Kazakh mass media. Äşimjanov then claimed that this alteration would not censor information, but rather prohibit propaganda and the "imposing of biased information". It was also clarified that the change would not affect news-styled information about LGBT and would, rather, help to "stop the promotion of ideas that can cause division in society".

Resignation petition

On February 6, 2022, a group of activists in Kazakhstan launched a petition addressed to President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev demanding the resignation of the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic, Askhat Aimagambetov.

Plagiarism in a Doctoral Dissertation

In 2020, Anar Kairbekova, former head of a department at the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, accused Askhat Aimagambetov of forgery and corruption. She conducted a study of Askhat Aimagambetov's doctoral dissertation and concluded that the minister's thesis, defended in 2009, had been rewritten and supplemented in 2019. By comparing the two works, Kairbekova discovered that the second version contained signs of manipulation and falsification of the original text, which Aimagambetov committed 10 years after defending his doctoral dissertation, while serving as head of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.