On 1 September, a new secondary school was opened in Shelek settlement. The institution was built with money allocated by Beeline Kazakhstan and the Zhyly Zhurek Charitable Corporate Foundation.
The three-store building of the school, where education will be conducted in the Kazakh language, is built on the principle of a university campus and is designed to meet the requirements of inclusive education. The main entrances have ramps, sanitary facilities have handrails, and there are passenger lifts. 900 schoolchildren will enter the building through one of four entrances depending on their age to avoid crowding and crush. In the lobby there is a special waiting area for parents, and on each floor there are co-working and recreational areas. The total area of the school is 13 thousand square meters.
In addition to subject classrooms equipped with interactive whiteboards and computers, the school houses:
- various laboratories and workshops,
- robotics, graphics and design rooms,
- photo studio,
- two sports halls with changing rooms and showers,
- a canteen with 287 seats, a library with computer workstations, an area with soft furniture and booths for group reading,
- assembly hall with 186 seats.
The adjacent territory includes a basketball and football field, a running track, a workout zone and an area for initial military training, bleachers and playgrounds for children. Later, in autumn, landscaping will begin: a hedge will be planted with 85 pine, rowan, birch, willow, apple, oak and ash trees, as well as 120 lilac bushes and Japanese spirea.
The opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek and the Akim of Almaty region Marat Sultangaziev.
«The number of school-age children in the region is increasing by 20,000 a year, and over 50 schools have to work in three shifts. The commissioning of new schools, which we are building under the state program, is not keeping pace with the growth in demand. We are happy that private business represented by Beeline Kazakhstan responded to our call for help and built Shelek School» said Marat Sultangaziev at the opening ceremony.
This is not Beeline’s first experience in modernizing school education. In 2022, Beeline Kazakhstan, whose shareholders are public telecommunications company VEON and Bulat Utemuratov’s Verny Capital group of companies, allocated two billion tenge to modernize eight rural support schools. The educational institutions were renovated, furniture was changed, technical equipment was provided, and new zones appeared: STEM-cabinets, art studios and workshops.
Beeline had a corporate charitable foundation, Zhyly Zhurek, in 2023 and the company decided to move forward.
The result of the modernization of rural schools inspired us so much that we decided to go to the next level - to implement a project to build a new school from scratch and then hand it over to the Akimat. A year and a half ago, the school was a wasteland, but today we look at the burning eyes of children who will study here and are happy that we have succeeded», says Anar Zhumagulova, head of the Foundation.
The implemented project embodies several values of the company. The first one is equal opportunities. Within the framework of its main activity Beeline installs base stations in villages, thus equalizing digital opportunities for residents of towns and villages. As part of its corporate social responsibility, Beeline helps young Kazakhstani children to receive quality secondary education in comfortable conditions.
The second value is the development of local talent. In 2018, Beeline made a decision to grow a team of IT developers within the organization, rather than using off-the-shelf vendor solutions. Five years later, this team has grown into QazQode, which develops digital solutions not only for Beeline, but also for other Kazakhstani and foreign companies.
School education is the foundation on which the country’s future specialists and experts will build their professional skills and knowledge. We are very happy to help hundreds of children take a step in this direction. It was a big and complex project, but in the end we have created a comfortable, friendly and technically equipped environment for children, parents and school staff. Here you want to spend your time: to study, play and do sports», says Yevgenyi Nastradin, CEO of Beeline Kazakhstan.
The children themselves are also delighted with the new school: the little ones are already playing on the playground, the older ones are mastering the co-working area, and some are playing wall chess.
This is the third charitable project for our group companies to build and equip secondary schools for further handover to the state. High-quality modern schools have been built in Kosshy, Yesik and now here in Shelek village. We firmly believe that private business should play an active role in supporting the younger generation of Kazakhstanis, emphasized Aidan Akanov, CEO of Verny Capital Group.