Today, the meeting of the Samruk-Kazyna Public Council chaired by Bolat Zhamishev has taken place in Astana. Members of the Council, representatives of public authorities, Atameken NCE and associations, as well as external experts and public figures discussed the national project “Comfortable School”.

401 schools in three years

The national project involves the construction of 401 new schools throughout Kazakhstan by the end of 2025. This will create more than 800 thousand modern student places and completely cancel the third shift. Schools will be built both in cities and in remote settlements in all regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The total budget of the project is KZT2.6 trillion.

The Directorate for the Target Construction of the national project is Samruk-Kazyna Construction. It is authorized with functions of the customer, controls the compliance of construction works with the specified deadlines and requirements, ensures transparency and efficiency of the selection of contractors, is responsible for the quality and timely commissioning of facilities. The company has already formed a detailed construction plan. Most schools will be built in places where there is already an acute shortage of student places. These are Almaty (63), Turkestan (63) and Mangistau (24) regions, as well as Shymkent (25), Astana (24) and Almaty (22). The remaining schools will be evenly distributed throughout Kazakhstan, including rural areas.

High requirements for contractors

According to representatives of SK Construction, extremely high requirements will be imposed on potential suppliers. When evaluating projects, the norms in force in Kazakhstan, the technical task approved by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as international best practices will be taken into account. Kazakhstan-produced materials should be used during construction.

The new schools will be of seven types: on 300, 600, 900, 1200, 1500, 2000 and 2500 seats. Each of them should have a robotics office, several laboratories, a choreography hall with an area of 88 square meters, three co-working spaces (for elementary school students, middle schoolers and teachers). The schools will also have separate sports and gyms for elementary grades (9x18 m) and for middle/high school (36x18 m). Each classroom will have an interactive blackboard and computers.

The new schools should also create a barrier-free environment for children: with special needs: special ramps, elevators, restrooms, an inclusive education room. In addition, a number of interior design elements and architectural solutions need to be executed in the national Kazakh style.

Transparency of selection and public control

When implementing the national project, SK Construction pays special attention to transparency of procedures and public control. Today, February 10, on the new online procurement platform of SK Construction (https://skcn.qaz.network/) a preliminary discussion of the tender documentation has started to determine the suppliers of complex turnkey design and construction works. Any stakeholders have the opportunity to review the documentation and give their suggestions and comments. On February 20, it is planned to place an announcement about the start of the competition in open access

Engineering services for technical supervision of construction will also be purchased on an open competitive basis, which will provide additional transparency. All procurements will take place on an online platform. The competition commissions will include not only representatives of SK Construction, but also independent experts from Atameken NCE, akimats, Public Councils of Samruk-Kazyna JSC and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

During the construction, an information digital monitoring platform will function. The information system will be used for the first time in a large-scale national project. This electronic system will permit to transparently and openly monitor all stages of construction. The main feature is that the customer, builders, numerous departments of akimats, ministries, technical supervision experts, etc. work together, set and control tasks, without excessive bureaucracy, promptly solve emerging issues in real time.

Opinion of experts and the public

The meeting of the Public Council on the “Comfortable School” project attracted a lot of attention from experts, public figures and media representatives. Olga Bulavkina, the Deputy of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, asked how many new schools would be built in rural areas. Maulen Aimanbetov, the Chief Executive Officer of SK Construction, replied that 183 schools or 46% of the total number would be built in villages.

Igor Protsenko from the “Guild of Furniture Makers of Kazakhstan” said that the volume of furniture that needs to be delivered to new schools is three times the annual capacity of all manufacturers of Kazakhstan. Therefore, we need to start manufacturing new furniture right now. Representatives of SK Construction stated that they are ready to discuss with the industry in the near future and approve necessary requirements so that furniture makers can start its production as soon as possible.

“Many issues are still under discussion. But it is very useful that we are raising all these issues right now in order to coordinate all the points with each other. By implementing the national project “Comfortable School”, we are setting new standards for the construction of schools in Kazakhstan. I am particularly pleased that an electronic online monitoring system is being created to control over the progress of construction. Public control is always a good thing. We will closely monitor the implementation of the project and, if necessary, we will once again convoke the Public Council,” Bolat Zhamishev summed up.