Pioneers & Schools
He is known as the "Father of Kazakh Education" and opened the first teacher training school in Orsk in 1883.
Who is Ybyrai Altynsarin?
According to the 1897 Census, this was the total literacy percentage across the Kazakh region.
What is 8.1%?
This future leader of the Alash Orda movement studied at the St. Petersburg Forestry Institute.
Who is Alikhan Bokeikhanov?
Altynsarin wrote this foundational 1879 textbook, the first to use the Cyrillic alphabet for the Kazakh language.
What is the "Kazakh Chrestomathy" (Kirghizskaya Khrestomatiya)?
Shoqan was a direct descendant of this famous 18th-century Khan, giving him high aristocratic status.
Who is Ablai Khan?
This city became the premier educational hub of the Steppe, housing a famous Teacher’s Seminary and Cadet Corps.
What is Omsk?
The Tsarist government frequently excluded these religious schools from official literacy statistics.
What are Medreses (or Mekteps)?
This graduate of the Omsk Teacher’s Seminary famously reformed the Kazakh alphabet to increase mass literacy.
Who is Akhmet Baitursynov?
He is credited with opening the first of these specialized schools in Turgay to provide girls with a secular education.
What are Female Primary Schools?
In 1858-59, disguised as a merchant, Ualikhanov made a legendary and dangerous scientific journey to this "forbidden" region.
What is Kashgaria?
Opened in 1850 in Orenburg, this 7-year institution was the first secular school designed specifically to train these two types of officials.
What are scribes and translators?
This empire-wide reform in 1867-1868 led to the opening of more secular schools to serve a growing sedentary population.
What are the Administrative Reforms?
Because local rights were being stripped, many Kazakh students in St. Petersburg and Kazan specifically chose to study this subject.
What is Law?
Altynsarin believed education should be practical; he opened schools for this specific field to modernize the Steppe's economy.
What is Agriculture (or Craft/Vocational schools)?
Shoqan was the first to write down and translate parts of this massive Kyrgyz epic, known as the "Iliad of the Steppe."
What is the "Manas"?
Introduced in 1892, these "schools on the move" were designed to travel alongside nomadic auls.
What are mobile (nomadic) schools?
Despite the growth of primary schools, this level of educational institution was strictly forbidden from opening inside Kazakhstan.
What is a Higher Education Institution (or University)?
Gulsum and Mariyam Asfendiyarova were the first Kazakh women to graduate from a medical institute in this city.
What is St. Petersburg?
This famous poem by Altynsarin begins with the line "Come, children, let us learn!", serving as a call to action for the youth.
What is "Kel, Balalar, Oqylyq"?
At just 12 years old, he was enrolled in this Omsk military institution, which he called his "window to the world."
What is the Siberian Cadet Corps?
This 1789 institution in Omsk was originally founded to train low-level bureaucrats for the "Asian" colonial administration.
What is the Asian School?
These "boarding houses" were funded by the local Kazakh population to ensure their children had a place to stay while studying in cities.
What are Internats?
This unique "triple-threat" student from Karkaraly graduated from medical, oriental, and law faculties across two different universities.
Who is Dinmuhamed Sultangazin?
Altynsarin served as the Inspector of Schools for this specific administrative region of the Russian Empire.
What is the Turgay Region?
He formed a deep and famous friendship with this Russian author (of Crime and Punishment) while both were in Omsk.
Who is Fyodor Dostoevsky?