Free Practice Questions for First-Head Appointment Certification (Kazakhstan)

First-Head Appointment Certification (Тестирование на назначение на должность первого руководителя) is the compulsory computer-based certification on knowledge of normative legal acts that a candidate must pass before competing for the post of first head — director or principal — of a state education organisation in Kazakhstan, including schools, colleges and preschool organisations. It is governed by Joint Order No. 57/96 of 31 March 2025 (reg. No. 35900), amended by Joint Order No. 222-НҚ/338 (reg. No. 39674) in force from 6 September 2026. Passing it is a legal precondition for submitting documents to the competition commission.

Teacher Attestation (kz-teacher-attestation) assesses serving educators and heads periodically so that qualification categories can be assigned or confirmed. Article 15(1)(3) of the Law 'On the Status of the Teacher' requires an educator to raise or confirm that category at least once every five years, and Article 44(5) of the Law 'On Education' puts a serving first head on a three-year attestation cycle. The First-Head Appointment Certification under Joint Order No. 57/96 is a different instrument: a one-off gate for competitive selection to a vacant director post, testing 48 items across six named legal acts with a 50% threshold on each, and producing a certificate valid for one year rather than a qualification category.

The certification is 48 single-best-answer multiple-choice items delivered electronically by the National Testing Center (Ұлттық тестілеу орталығы / НЦТ) across six acts: Labour Code (10 items), Law 'On Education' (10), Law 'On Countering Corruption' (10), Law 'On the Status of the Teacher' (10), GOSO Order No. 348 (4) and Typical Rules Order No. 385 (4). Paragraph 56 requires at least 50% on each act individually — 5 of 10 and 2 of 4 — so falling short on one act fails the whole certification, and the National Testing Center publishes an overall threshold of 24 of 48 points. Paragraph 57, as amended with effect from 6 September 2026, allots 96 minutes, after which the software closes automatically; the National Testing Center format page still displayed the earlier 180 minutes when checked on 2026-09-21, so confirm the current figure when you register.

Paragraph 49 of the Appointment Rules provides that certification is conducted on a paid basis by an organisation determined by the authorized body in education, and without access by representatives of the state body that announced the competition. The Rules do not publish an amount; the National Testing Center charges 9,403 KZT for a certification attempt, payable online during registration on app.testcenter.kz, and offers an optional trial test for 2,140 KZT. Application windows and testing dates are announced on testcenter.kz.

The result is sent to the candidate's personal cabinet in the form set in Annex 7 to the Rules (paragraph 58), and the certificate is valid for one year from the date of certification (paragraph 59). A candidate who does not reach the threshold may re-sit (paragraph 60). The candidate must separately hold a KAZTEST / QAZAQ RESMI TEST state-language certificate at level B1 or higher, then submits documents to the competition commission and attends an interview scored on the evaluation sheet in Annex 9. Under the new paragraph 63-1, the commission decides on the basis of points scored and the highest-scoring candidate wins; ties are resolved by open vote, with the chair's vote decisive.

Under paragraph 10 of the Rules as restated from 6 September 2026, members of the Presidential Youth Personnel Reserve, graduates of Nazarbayev University, graduates of foreign higher and postgraduate organisations who studied under the President's 'Bolashak' international scholarship, and graduates of one of the world's 100 best universities by the QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education or the Academic Ranking of World Universities are exempt from certification and admitted to the interview, provided they hold the required education or pedagogical retraining document. Separately, under paragraph 61, candidates for first head of a 'Bilim-Innovation' lyceum are exempt and are instead agreed with the Bilim-Innovation International Public Foundation.

This independent OpenExamPrep bank provides 100 English-language practice questions with worked explanations and article-level citations across all six blueprint areas: the Labour Code, the Law 'On Education', the Law 'On Countering Corruption', the Law 'On the Status of the Teacher', GOSO Order No. 348 and Typical Rules Order No. 385. It is an independent study tool for the named exam and its topics, not an official test release, an official translation, or a simulation of the National Testing Center software or of the competition commission interview.