As a result, students are not only learning programming but also building their own digital products using modern technologies. Teachers trained through the program are now equipping students with digital skills and guiding them in applying these skills through hands-on projects.

“We are building an IT education ecosystem in Kazakhstan that ensures equal access to digital skills for both educators and students—from major cities to remote villages,” said Daniya Akhmetova, Managing Director of Astana Hub. “The initiative to teach schoolchildren the fundamentals of coding, launched at the direction of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, includes teacher training through the Tech Orda program. Moreover, over 22,000 high school students have already gained access to Now Code and Low Code IT courses via the Astana Hub Education LMS platform. These are not standalone courses—they are part of a comprehensive system to develop a new generation of digital talent that will shape the technological future of our country.”

One notable example is Gulnur Ibraeva, an IT teacher at Daryn School-Lyceum No. 13 in Zhanaozen. Along with her student, she developed an interactive game called Aldar Köse using the GameMaker platform, transforming a traditional Kazakh folk tale into an engaging digital experience. The project won a city-level prize at the “Daryn” competition, demonstrating how digital tools can help preserve cultural heritage. “When a student realizes they can not only play games but also create them, their attitude toward technology changes. They move from being consumers to becoming creators,” said Ibrayeva.

A similar approach was taken by teacher Makhanbet Satlabayev, who used game development to introduce his students to the history of Kazakh heroes. Together with a student, he created Game of Heroes, which allows players to explore the feats of legendary warriors. “It's important for children to learn history not just from textbooks. I wanted to show my students that you can tell the stories of great figures through interactive games,” he said. Game of Heroes went on to win third place at the national “Zerde” competition.

Another standout example is biology teacher Rysgul Nurova, who mastered GameDev and achieved one of the top results in the course. She now plans to integrate digital tools into her biology lessons to make the subject more engaging and visually dynamic.

The training, which lasted more than six months, was conducted in both Kazakh and Russian by leading IT schools nFactorial and Omnium. Following the program’s completion, the Ministry of Education of Kazakhstan and Astana Hub have begun integrating AI and GameDev modules into the curricula of selected pilot schools.

Photos: Ministry of Education, Republic of Kazakhstan