Instead of Dubai - to Kulynjon

Three years ago, Aralbek BERIKULY refused the director's chair at a prestigious school in Astana, a lucrative offer to teach in Dubai, and went to a small village in the East Kazakhstan region. To raise the school. They even made a film about him. Director Khanzat KENEZ called his documentary "Experiment".

Yes, the project was sponsored. And the secondary school in the village of Kulynzhon, where a little more than 130 children studied, did not fall apart - the patron built a new building. But in reality, no one really took care of the children, grades were drawn, and the teaching staff was happy with one thing - the high salary of the village teacher. The project ended, the sponsor's millions went away. But Aralbek remained. Why?

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It is worth getting to know him: a father of many children (five children!), a math teacher. He is not a capital city resident at all. On the contrary, he is one of those whose tears the capital does not believe. He was born in Shalkar, studied in Aktobe: first in a regular school, then in a physics and mathematics boarding school. Victory at the regional Olympiad brought good luck - a grant at the Kazakhstan branch of Moscow State University, and studying in Moscow was in the cards.

But the student needed to help his family: it was not easy for his father, a bricklayer, and his mother, a housewife, to raise his four sisters. Aralbek transferred to a Kazakh university. His part-time job was also mathematical - he got a job as a tutor.

He finally believed in the correctness of his choice of specialty when future applicants said: we will prepare for the UNT only with him. Years later, he opened his own educational center, and began recording video lessons during quarantine. And it was not only about sanitary restrictions - he wanted to do something important, significant, to narrow the gap between rural and urban schools. He became noticeable - he was invited to a management position at the capital's RFMSh. At the same time, his resume shot up - they promised to take him with his wife and children to Dubai, to arrange their life.

But then, by chance, Aralbek came across a post on social media: in the small village of Kulynzhon in the Samara district of East Kazakhstan region, philanthropists were going to save the school. The high school students were stuck at the level of knowledge of the basic school. The school needed a principal - a breakthrough, an unconventional thinker.

Aralbek asked for the same amount of money as he had received in the capital. He laughs: less than the Arabs promised. His wife said what all husbands wanted to hear: “Wherever you go, I go” and said goodbye to the Dubai malls. The children were transferred to a village kindergarten and school.

Only the mother was indignant: with such prospects, being a village director is not downshifting, of course, a noble mission. But she tried to dissuade her son.

- And I asked her for her blessing. I said: if I leave and others leave, who will remain in the country? - Aralbek recalls. - It seemed to me then that at 60 I would regret precisely that I did not go to the village. It is a difficult choice when the well-being of your family is at stake. But you need to work not only for a small circle, you need to try to do something for the country. But 70 percent of Kazakhstan's schools are located in villages. What has been done for them in 30 years? After three years at the Kulynzhon village school, I am no longer determined to reduce the gap between city and village schools. I want rural children to be stronger, more promising.

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- I was amazed by the children. They were withdrawn, constrained. Everything contributed to this: the student was the last person whose opinion and interests were taken into account, - says Aralbek. - When I started the lessons, I saw that the information that students in rural schools were 2-2.5 years behind their peers from the city was incorrect. Students in the 9th and 10th grades did not know the multiplication table, fractions! They read poorly. Foreign languages ​​- at the level of the simplest phrases. And in the class - the children of the teachers themselves. Didn't they even try for their sake? And this problem is not the village of Kulynzhon. It is the system. False reports, the absence of poor students.

There was a story. The district education department sent down an order: the new director must fine his head teacher, who failed to register schoolchildren for the district Olympiad.

- I refused because at that time our children were not ready even for the school competition. And I said so. Alas, the cheerful figures about the success of our education are nothing more than a fake, - Berikuly states.

At the first meeting of the teaching staff, the director outlined the "flags". The ban included alcohol on school grounds (there were precedents - from get-togethers to noisy feasts), aggression towards children, damage to school property. The school's teaching staff of 40 people looked at him with caution. Very quickly, they had to fire the employee - he came to work tipsy. And then there was an anonymous survey among the employees, and many admitted that they had not read a single new book in a year, nothing on child psychology, and were not interested in the opportunity to improve their professional level.

- With rural supplements, teachers' salaries here can reach 500-600 thousand tenge, and they receive more than a million in vacation pay. There is nowhere to spend it - that's a fact. And many manage their money wisely: they take out a mortgage in the city, save for their children's education. But such a salary does not correspond to the real level of qualification. And few graduates still want to go to the village with a diploma, - admits Aralbek.

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He believes:

- The main problem happened when the UNT for pedagogical universities set almost the lowest passing score. We got a lot of illiterate teachers who entered for the sake of a grant, without aspirations, love and respect for their profession. But they took us even further - we came from the level when parents helped students with homework to the point where now neither children nor adults understand what is written in our textbooks.

At district meetings, I have repeatedly raised the issue of additional classes, the vicious practice of giving a C for empty work, and A's to those who are a little better at the subject. But there is no control on the part of the state either. Our schools are so scattered that if officials from the Ministry of Education want to visit them for an inspection, they won't manage to do it in a year. And the school is ready to receive guests when the commission is still on its way.

The new broom in the Kulynzhonovskaya secondary school began to sweep according to the principle "teachers are not waiters and do not serve banquets for inspectors." Aralbek nods: yes, for a school that does not pass the inspection, the consequences are sad - there will be no bonuses, for example. But the flow of inspectors is endless.

- Let them check honestly or write out orders, - the director snapped. - After them, we will become better and smarter.

At one of the meetings in the district, they said that they were expecting an auditor, and as usual, they suggested spreading the expenses. Aralbek refused - they have travel expenses, daily allowances. They whispered to the auditor who is the right one. And she thanked the obstinate one... and admitted that they had already become so accustomed to the practice of "hospitality" that they stopped perceiving adequately whose money the banquet was paid for with.

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- Aren't you afraid to talk about it? The sponsorship project is over. And you're still here...

- I don't see any point in being afraid to talk about what is dragging down and ruining the entire education system. I put students first. They are our future. And I didn't stay for the sake of one school. The YBYRAI MEKTEBI project - a progressive rural school using seamless education - we are going to scale up to two new schools next year.

- They probably wrote complaints about you in batches?

- There were a lot of things: anonymous calls, letters. Checks that I didn’t always pass successfully - I wasn’t very competent in matters of documentation. I had to learn too - it was my first experience of management in a government agency. I didn’t want to become part of the existing system. I was very close to quitting: why am I trying so hard for the sake of 200 people, when I’m expected in other schools where there are more students, the effect is more noticeable. But I stayed because of the children. Previously, they didn’t dream of entering, and if they did dare, then only to regional universities. They didn’t think about the future. They thought that life would pass like this in this village. They changed. They started getting 100 points on the UNT instead of 50 and six on the IELTS. They are making plans to enter universities in Almaty and Astana, and are interested in studying abroad!

***

The outsider director irritated everyone. And, oddly enough, the parents of the schoolchildren too. It used to be like this: at two o'clock the school was already locked, everyone went about their business.

- They told me: don't leave them after school, they need to manage the household. It's no secret that a child in a village is just another working hand: to graze cattle, to fetch water. What kind of robotics clubs are there? Although there were those who supported me, - Aralbek shares. - Gradually, we established contact with the teachers - I had to delve into their problems as human beings. And people began to change - many now have a different outlook.

Today, the school headed by Aralbek has 15 clubs. Interesting, innovative, no worse than those available to peers in megacities. They are attended by 173 children. That is, all the students and a couple dozen more who are brought from the neighboring village by their parents.

This school is one of the small ones. And the entire village has less than 700 residents. It is unlikely that a Palace of Schoolchildren, a House of Arts or even a village club will ever appear here. Boredom. Hopelessness. Therefore, the goal was to unite not only children in the school - let adults come too, if they are interested. So the unfamiliar word "community center" began to sound in the village. It started to bubble and spin - master classes, conferences...

Children spend the whole day at school - fuss, childish hubbub. Aralbek tells me, and my soul warms: the first rule he introduced in the state institution entrusted to him was to allow children to run along the corridors, make noise, laugh, dance during breaks. And so that no one - from the head teacher to the cleaning lady - could pull them up, shout at them.

- You know, the minor sabotage by schoolchildren stopped right away - they stopped drawing on the walls and desks, intentionally littering the school toilets. All this was the result of suppressing their nature. It was the only way they could speak out, - Aralbek smiles. - And now my children study at this school too.

Yulia ZENG, Almaty