Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools
The Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) are a network of schools for exceptional students of age 5 to 18 throughout Kazakhstan.<ref name=Randstad/> The schools are named after Nursultan Nazarbayev, president of Kazakhstan, who has promoted the idea as a means of developing the intellectual life of the country.<ref name=EANet/> Each school focuses primarily on a specific set of subjects: either physical sciences and mathematics, or chemical and biological sciences, as well as foreign languages.<ref name=EANet/> Instruction is trilingual, in Kazakh, Russian and English,<ref name=Randstad/> shifting to exclusively English by the senior year.<ref name=EANet/>
Partnerships
The program was initially set up with the assistance of faculty members from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.<ref name=GSE/> Subsequently, Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools partnered with the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education on curriculum development; Cambridge Assessment on design of the assessment system; CiTO, Netherlands on the testing and measurement; and Johns Hopkins University on working with talented youth.
Schools
Currently there are 22 NIS or associated schools located in the following localities:
- Astana: Four schools (NIS Astana PhM, NIS Astana (an International Baccalaureate World School), the International School of Astana, and the National Physics and Mathematics School)
- Semey: One school (NIS Semey PhM)
- Kokshetau: One school (NIS Kokshetau PhM)
- Taldykorgan: One school (NIS Taldykorgan PhM)
- Uralsk: One school (NIS Uralsk PhM)
- Oskemen: One school (NIS Oskemen PhM)
- Aktobe: One school (NIS Aktobe PhM)
- Karaganda: One school (NIS Karaganda PhM)
- Shymkent: Two schools (NIS Shymkent PhM and NIS Shymkent ChB)
- Taraz: One school (NIS Taraz PhM)
- Kyzylorda: One school (NIS Kyzylorda ChB)
- Pavlodar: One school (NIS Pavlodar ChB)
- Atyrau: One school (NIS Atyrau ChB)
- Almaty: Two schools (NIS Almaty PhM and NIS Almaty ChB)
- Kostenai: One school (NIS Kostenai PhM)
- Petropavlovsk: One school (NIS Petropavlovsk ChB)
- Aktau: One school (NIS Aktau ChB)
Currently NIS operates twenty intellectual schools throughout the country, in addition to an international school and specialist mathematics school in Astana.<ref name=Randstad/>
Conferences
The NIS International Conference is one of the largest educational conferences in Central Asia, and the largest focusing exclusively on preschool, primary and secondary education, typically attracting around 1000 participants. Previous keynote speakers have included Colleen McLaughlin, Patrick Griffin, Fred Genesee, William Schmidt, Richard Phelps, Miho Taguma, David Bridges, and John Elliott.
Criticism
The Nazarbayev network has been criticized for its concentration on only the best and brightest at the expense of the bulk of the student population.<ref name=EANet/>
