To September 1, 2023, a new school for 1,500 students will be opened in Kosshy town of the Akmola Region. The charity project worth about 7.5 billion Tenge is financed by Bulat Utemuratov Foundation. Upon completion of construction, the school will be donated to the city.
In addition to classrooms, the new school will be equipped with recreational areas, modern training and production workshops, sports and gymnastic areas, an information center, a laboratory, an art studio, and a co-working space. The total area of the three-storey school will be about 16 thousand square meters. There is a basketball-and-volleyball court, a stadium with a mini-football pitch and race tracks, playgrounds for older and younger schoolchildren. Play and sports areas are designed with soft rubber coating based on polymer chips. A lawn of perennial grasses, trees and shrubs of local species will be planted around the school. The entrance zone will be equipped with ramps, tactile paths for the visually impaired.
The population of Kosshy is about 65 thousand people. With the growing birth rate and further urbanization the need for student places is increasing. Thus, in September 2021 the number of first-graders in one of the schools of the town was about 700 people, the entire alphabet up to the letter “Y” had been used to indicate a first grade parallel.
“I have two children of school age. Our school designed for one thousand two hundred students teaches all five thousand in three shifts. It is understandable that under such conditions, teachers simply cannot give every child the attention he or she deserves. Construction of a new school is essential to life of our town,” Natalya Pospelova, resident of Kosshy, said.
“There are only three schools in our town, two of them are public schools, and they are overcrowded. We are grateful to Bulat Utemuratov Foundation for supporting the project to build a new school in Kosshy. I have seen the design of the new school – it will meet the best world standards. Children will be able not only to get knowledge and rest between lessons in comfortable, well-designed rooms, but also to develop their practical skills and abilities, as the school will have training and production spaces equipped with special equipment,” Gaidar Kassenov, Akim of Kosshy, said.
In addition to modern infrastructure, the new school will introduce in-demand, innovative additional education programs, which are also one of the key activities of Bulat Utemuratov Foundation. Last year the Foundation launched two projects in the school education field – Green Schools and Leadership Academy. Under the first project, a year-round greenhouse will be installed at the school, where children will gain practical skills and knowledge about growing vegetables, berries, and herbs. Within the framework of the Leadership Academy, teens will be able to develop critical thinking, leadership skills and communication competencies.
