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In 2020, in order to improve the quality of knowledge of students in rural schools, “Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools” (AEO) initiated the “Rural School” project with the support of the regional administrations and business structures of Kazakhstan. The project provided training on effective lesson planning, the development and analysis of assessment tasks and the development of teachers' subject competencies.

The Center of Excellence (CoE) brought together all teachers from 14 rural schools in six regions of the country into a professional network community (Akmola, Karaganda, Kyzylorda, North Kazakhstan, East Kazakhstan and Zhambyl regions) to discuss topical issues of educational development.

Methodological events were held as part of the community.

On 23 September 2020, the first Republican Seminar, “Rural School: Together Towards Success”, was held to provide methodological assistance to teachers in choosing a trajectory for professional development and to form key benchmarks for the development of rural schools. In April 2021, the second Republican Seminar, “Rural Teacher’s Practice”, was held to share experiences and improve teaching and learning practices.

Today the project “Rural school” continues its work.

On September 27, 2021, an online course on the topic “Essay Writing” was launched on the educational platform  https://sdo.cpm.kz/ for teachers of rural schools. The course programme is aimed at acquainting students with the structure and content of essays, learning the methods of teaching students to write essays and assessment criteria. During the course, teachers will analyze the methods and techniques that facilitate high-quality writing of essays of different types and get acquainted with the criteria for evaluating essays. The courses will improve not only teaching methods but also develop teachers’ practical skills in analyzing and evaluating students’ essays.

Based on a study of the educational process in rural schools, observation of teaching practices and analysis of the results of monitoring of learning achievements, a study of the professional needs of the CoE, thematic online courses and webinars for a new category of school trainers on analytics were developed.

In an asynchronous format, courses for school analytics trainers are planned on the platform  https://sdo.cpm.kz/ to develop research and analytical skills, skills in systematising and processing data, diagnosing and formulating conclusions and recommendations. 

A series of webinars has now been developed to train teachers in rural schools to conduct monitoring studies. The thematic webinars were launched in October this year: “Theory and practice of monitoring studies”, “Tools for conducting monitoring studies”, “Effective use of online survey creation services”, and “Analysis and interpretation of monitoring study data”.

This format of work will increase the methodological capacity of schools, improve the quality of teaching and learning, and develop teachers’ digital and analytical skills. We hope that the project will become a starting point for new goals and new solutions in the development of rural schools.