Kazakhstan overhauls private school funding with digital reforms and stricter oversight

Kazakhstan has introduced new regulations to improve state funding for private schools. The changes aim to ensure public money is used more efficiently and reaches the areas with the greatest need. A digital system has also been launched to streamline the process. The number of private schools in the country has grown rapidly over the past five years. There are now 856 institutions serving 325,000 students with around 32,000 teachers. Kazakhstan’s education system includes over 8,000 schools in total, catering to 3.9 million children.

A recent audit uncovered violations totalling over 13 billion tenge. Issues included state contracts awarded without considering regional demand and inflated student numbers. To address this, the government launched the OrtaBilim service on the e-Qazyna platform, which digitises funding processes and verifies school data.

Between January and May 2026, 749 private schools received 100.7 billion tenge in state support. Digitisation helped save 59.3 billion tenge during this period. The government has also committed 760 billion tenge for private school funding from 2026 to 2028. The reforms seek to make funding more transparent and targeted. The digital system will help prevent misuse of public funds. Private schools receiving state support will now be subject to stricter verification and regional needs assessments.