A few years ago, Aidyn Rakhimbayev fully renovated the school in his home village of Kulynzhon in East Kazakhstan Region. He then took on the bigger task: bringing quality education back to the school. At his invitation, Aralbek Berikuly, formerly deputy director of the Republican Physics and Mathematics School, became its principal. Within three years, the new principal transformed the school: struggling classes caught up, and the standard of teaching rose. Students who had started with no English began winning places at Nazarbayev University, and the school’s average IELTS score reached 6.0. When his contract ended, Aralbek chose to stay in the village. Once half-empty, the school now has more applicants than places. So Aidyn, together with the local akimat, built a boarding house and a sports complex at the school, where gifted students from other districts and teachers can now live. Four hundred villagers came to the opening of the new buildings, and the school has once again become the heart of the village.
