Kazakhstan schools mulling distance learning cources

During the Connect Kazakhstan-2012 forum Nurlan Izmaylov, Chairman of the Board of Zerde Holding (IT holding), said that distance learning is going to be implemented in Kazakhstan schools, Tengrinews.kz reports. "We have already started to introduce several fundamental flagship projects: electronic government of Kazakhstan, electronic procurement. Now are planning to start up nationwide projects of social implication. Distance education program that will cover all regions of Kazakhstan is one of them. To achieve this we are developing an access networks for schools together with Kazakhtelecom (national telecommunication company of Kazakhstan) and creating very important functional elements at schools: school administration systems and educational content management systems,” Izmaylov said. According to Izmaylov, these projects will be developed in the framework of the Information and Communication Technologies Development Program 2010-2014, which is part of industry-specific program of the Transport and Communication Ministry of Kazakhstan. "There are goals set for the Information and Communication Technologies development in the industry-specific program, and we are going to meet them within 4 or 5 years,” the Chairman of Board of the IT-holding said. He also underlined that a governmental cloud is being constructed. "We think that creation of modern cloud technologies will help us reduce expenses 25-30% compered to the traditional way of introduction of the IT," Iznaylov told.