40% of Kazakh schoolchildren move to distance learning

Three cities of Kazakhstan, namely Almaty, Shymkent and Nur-Sultan, have moved to distance learning for the third term of the school year. That is, 1.5 million schoolchildren were switched to remote learning, reported Gulmira Karimova, Chairperson of the Preschool and Secondary Education Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science, during the briefing. An exception was made only for first- and second-graders. Given their age, they will be studying in a traditional in-class format. Students in grades three to five will study in duty groups. However, the requirements in other regions of the country are not that strict, Karimova said. There, schools with no more than 600 students will be allowed to continue offline education. Experts have estimated that two million schoolchildren in Kazakhstan will continue their education in the traditional format. The main condition is the observance of all sanitary rules.

“Extra-curricular organizations that provide additional education will continue to operate as usual and classes will be held in small groups of up to 10 people. These include music schools, art schools and schoolchildren’s palaces. As for rehabilitation offices and organizations catering for children with special needs, whom are more than 160,000 across the country, the training will be carried out either in small groups of one to two children, or in the regular format if there are no more than eight children,” Gulmira Karimova, Chairperson of the Preschool and Secondary Education Committee of the Kazakh Ministry of Education and Science, said.

Translation and Editing by Assem Zhanmukhanova