A significant event has taken place today in Kishkenekol village of North Kazakhstan region. School No. 2 with the boarding school has opened its doors to everyone and presented the project “Development of the Hub School Potential in Rural Areas”.
The project, which brought together business, the state and society, is aimed at reducing the gap in the quality of education between the city and the countryside. In addition, its goal is to introduce the best pedagogical practices and techniques and provide support schools with the necessary material and technical base.
The school, built in 1985, has never been overhauled and only in 2019 the windows were replaced with plastic ones. Bilingual with Kazakh and Russian language of education, which employs 71 teachers, is designed for 900 students, but now 516 students are studying here.
To date, the staff of the Education Sustainable Development Fund and specialists of the project partner, Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools AEO have completed work on the analysis of the educational environment and the quality of teaching at school. Analysts have formed recommendations for the development of the school as a hub, and are holding advanced training courses necessary for teachers.
The school is equipped with a STEM laboratory, an ART studio, an Intellectual office, workshops, a library, a TV studio and classrooms. The financing was carried out as part of the Kazakhstan Khalkyna Fund.
All this will allow the school not only to become the center of village life, but also make it a magnet for small schools in the region, to which it will transfer its practical and methodological experience.
According to Azir Zhassybekov, Head of the Department of Education of North Kazakhstan region, the project will give impetus to the development of education in rural areas. “Today we have presented a very good project. The Education Sustainable Development Fund together with Kazakhstan Khalkyna Fund, Beeline and Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools have offered us to implement it in North Kazakhstan region. The essence is to modernize and improve the quality of education in rural schools. Why in rural schools? There are two big problems in secondary education in the country. This is a regional gap in the quality of education and a gap between rural and urban schools. The new classrooms, coupled with the strong work of teachers, will create a base from which the child will go into adulthood. It will allow a child to get a profession and find himself in life,” Azir Azamatovich says
Initially, in the nineteenth year, five pilot schools participated in the project, they were located in Akmola region and East Kazakhstan region. By 2022, the results showed that these schools are getting results. On average, the quality of education at school increases by 10-12% in 3 years of work. And together with Kazakhstan Khalkyna Fund in 2022, the project has became nationwide, 17 regions – 17 schools. The Fund, together with their donor, Beeline Kazakhstan, has allocated KZT250 million for each school. This money was spent on the material and technical equipment of the school. AITAS Holding finances operational activities, as well as direct expenses that go to training, travel, administrative expenses. The methodological partner, Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools, provides assistance free of charge.
“In North Kazakhstan region, one school participates in the project - this is school No. 2 in Kishkenekol village. In September, our partners from Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools has analyzed the quality of the educational environment and drew up a plan to improve the skills of teachers. In parallel, work was carried out on the analysis of the material and technical base with its updating.
This is not the end of the work. Nazarbayev Intellectual School will continue methodological support. According to the regulations, intensive training of teachers will be conducted for six months, and then 2.5 years of school support: additional courses, explanations, some interesting and difficult to explain subjects, topics for teachers and other elements of training.
Regarding the renewal of the material base. 34 classrooms were equipped in this school. Of these, these are ART studio offices, STEM labs, and a TV studio. This is done so that the child in the village has the same opportunities as in the city. After all, in the village, as a rule, there is no palace of schoolchildren, paid and sports sections. Children will be able to do this within the same school and enjoy their time,” Aslan Aitakhmetov, the manager of the FURO project, said.
