The educational conference “Bilimdi Urpak – Bilimdi Yel” has been held in the capital, initiated by the Kazakhstan Khalkyna Fund.
The Public Fund has presented to the general public the results of work on pilot educational projects implemented jointly with partners and aimed at solving systemic problems in the education sector of the country.
One of the initiatives supported by the Kazakhstan Khalkyna Fund in the field of education was the Potential Development of the Hub Schools in Rural Areas project.
“Children in rural areas have fewer opportunities than children in urban schools – this does not need to be. In 17 regions of the country, our Fund, together with ESDF and NIS, is implementing a project to develop 17 hub schools. In fact, we have created the material and technical base of these schools, equipped all the classrooms completely. If we want support schools to become centers of competence for education in rural areas, then we need to train teachers, equip classrooms with everything necessary, and create an appropriate environment to make it comfortable to study. Now we have started scaling the project,” Bolat Zhamishev, Head of the Kazakhstan Khalkyna Fund said.
The Potential Development of the Hub Schools in Rural Areas project was launched in 2022. It aims to reduce the education gap between rural and urban schools. The operator of the project was the Education Sustainable Development Fund (ESDF), the sponsors are the Kazakhstan Khalkyna Fund and the AITAS holding. The general partner of the project is Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools AEO, which has taken over the academic part.
“In 2019, as AITAS holding, we launched a project to develop education in five rural schools. This corresponds to our purpose and mission, which we have laid the foundation for our work – serving the people of Kazakhstan for the sustainable development of the country. This is how our AITAS Foundation funds appeared, whose projects later received the support of the Kazakhstan Khalkyna Fund”. “The potential development of the hub schools in rural areas is an excellent example of successful and effective collaboration of civil society, government and business. Both on the example of our Holding and on the example of the projects of the Kazakhstan Khalkyna Fund, we can say with confidence that business can change education. And systemic and scalable projects can participate in sustainable development,” Ksenia Verba, Head of the AITAS Foundation said.
In 2022, for the implementation of the mentioned project, the Kazakhstan Khalkyna Fund allocated KZT4.25 billion, which were directed exclusively to equipping schools. The first stage was attended by 17 schools – 602 classrooms in 17 schools in 17 districts of regions of Kazakhstan. An average of KZT250 million was allocated to each school for equipment.
In general, the project is planned to cover 191 rural schools in the coming years.