New opportunities: Rural schoolchildren are taught to program and create mobile applications

During the autumn holidays, many schoolchildren do not waste time – they continue to study, plunging into the world of new knowledge. The Nazarbayev Intellectual School of Karaganda hosts a four-day hackathon for ninth graders from rural schools, organized by the IQanat Foundation.

100 students from four regions gathered here – North Kazakhstan, Akmola, Karaganda and Ulytau.

– The IQanat Hackathon project is a very effective platform for students to master digital competencies. In the current age of digital technology, this opens up great opportunities. The program is rich: ninth graders from rural schools comprehend the basics of Web programming and mobile application development, learn the Python programming language - today it is the most popular. In addition to workshops, trainings "The way to success" are held. In the final at the exhibition, the guys will present their own projects, – said Gleb Davletgariev, Deputy Director of NIS in Karaganda. – The most important thing is that this project promotes personal growth, helps rural students to self–actualize.

Participants of the hackathon from the Karaganda region shared how they managed to get into this hundred.

– We are all participants of the three republican rounds of the IQanat Olympiad. The tasks of the first and second stages were performed in their schools. The third round was held in the summer at Nazarbayev University. I think the selection is serious. A lot of people dropped out in the process, only I passed out of our school," says Arina Lavrikova from the Yuri Gagarin school in the village of Botakara, Bukhar-Zhyrau district. – I wasn't particularly interested in the IT sphere before, but now I've learned so much new. Very useful. The schedule is tight: we have time to study, communicate, and go on excursions.

Arman Aitkaliyev from the village of Topar, Abai district, has already won a grant to study at IQanat High School of Burabay. This is a boarding school where gifted children from rural areas are prepared for admission to the best domestic and world universities.

– I will study there next year. He won the Olympiad, got into the top hundred students. We took the English language, solved mathematical problems, and there was also a separate subject. I chose biology. I haven't decided on my future profession yet. I think it might be something funny. Perhaps this hackathon will help to test yourself," Arman noted. – Now I'm working in tandem with another participant. We have an idea for the project – to try to use an image recognition system based on computer vision technology.

IQanat is an educational project of Kazakhstani entrepreneurs. It expands rural students' access to quality education and gives them ample opportunities. Detailed information can be obtained on the foundation's website.