How Kazakhstan is transforming education: new schools, higher teacher salaries and free meals for schoolchildren
“The state’s task is to create favorable learning conditions for every child, regardless of where they live” Kassym–Jomart Tokayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan has established a robust national policy aimed at providing favorable, safe and comfortable conditions for quality education for every student, regardless of their place of residence. This is facilitated by a large-scale government program that has been implemented over recent years.
The country is undergoing unprecedented wave of school construction. On behalf of the Head of State, about 1,000 rural and district schools have been upgraded annually for the past fourth year. This initiative not only improves the learning environments but also bridges the education quality gap between urban and rural educational organizations.
Over the past three years, the material and technical base of more than 4,000 schools has been upgraded. More than 2,000 educational organizations have modern classrooms equipped for subjects like robotics, chemistry, biology, physics, and STEM subjects. In 2024 alone, a record 1,621 modern subject classrooms were set up in 967 schools. This effort continues: it is planned to open at least 7,000 modern subject classrooms by 2029.
The introduction of digital technologies is another key driver in improving the quality of education. As part of national initiatives, 100% of school textbooks have been digitized, and 95.2% of schools have enhanced the quality of the Internet assess.
Educational platforms and elements of artificial intelligence are being actively integrated into the curriculum. All these measures are aimed at preparing schoolchildren for future challenges and developing their digital competencies from an early age.
The quality of education is directly related to the level of teacher professionalism. In this regard, the state consistently supports teachers, improves their status and financial well-being. Teachers’ salaries have been doubled since 2020, and those teachers with qualified categories receive a 35% to 50% bonus to their base salary.
Currently, out of 400,000 teachers working in the secondary education system, around 300,000 ones already benefit from these payments.
Particular attention is paid to supporting rural teachers: their salaries are at least 25% higher than their city colleagues. This helps attract qualified personnel to these areas.
Since September 2023, on behalf of the President, schools have been providing free hot meals to primary school students. This measure also covers socially vulnerable students. Over KZT 192 billion has been allocated from local budgets to cover 1.7 million students.
Efforts to improve the quality of food is also a priority, with stricter requirements for food service staff, the automation of recipient records, and enhanced daily monitoring.
Moreover, within the framework of the Universal Education Fund, more than 510,000 schoolchildren from socially vulnerable categories are provided with school supplies annually.
Starting in 2025, it is planned to extend these support measures — free meals and school supplies — to school students in private schools who are categorized as socially vulnerable.