The presentation of the project took place in Aktobe at the meeting with the participation of Akim of Aktobe region, Yeraly Tugzhanov, Vice-Minister of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Aibat Ilyassov, Head of the Kazakhstan Khalkyna Fund, Bolat Zhamishev, Honored Teacher of Kazakhstan, public figure Kulyash Shamshidinova, Head of the Aitas Foundation corporate fund, Xeniya Verba, representatives of the regional education departments, directors of small schools, and partners in the project implementation.
According to statistics, 72,5% of 404 secondary schools in Aktobe region are located in rural areas, 204 of which are small ones. In addition, 40% of small schoolteachers do not have a qualification category, which affects the quality of educational services received by students. The pilot project will be implemented in 134 small schools with a coverage of 10.5 thousand students. Schools will receive updated digital classrooms for online learning and science classrooms for laboratory work.
“Being engaged in the development of rural areas, it became clear to us that education is the basis without which it is impossible to reveal the potential of human resources of rural residents. High-quality education should be accessible to both urban and rural residents. Today our educational projects find their logical continuation. Students of small schools will receive the most advanced knowledge, classrooms, access to quality education, and we have become even closer to our big goal - the sustainable development of Kazakhstan through affordable quality education for children and residents of rural areas,” Xeniya Verba, Director of Aitas Foundation corporate fund said.
The project initiators are confident that its implementation will give rise to the preparation of proposals for improving regulatory legal acts on the issues of hub and magnet schools, the development of pedagogical and methodological recommendations, as well as become an example for scaling the project in other regions of Kazakhstan.