Kazakhstan continues to see a steady increase in the number of private schools. According to the Ministry of Education, over the past five years, their number has increased by more than 2.5 times. The largest number of paid schools have opened in Almaty, Astana and Shymkent, as well as in suburban areas that are actively being built up with cottages.
I am Maksim Belyakov, founder and director of Sailet web and mobile development studio. Over the last two years, I have focused on IT solutions for education. I notice that it is often the internal structure that turns out to be the weakest link. In addition, we have already implemented more than 50 digitalization and automation projects for market giants from different industries: Lukoil Lubricants Central Asia, WWF, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, and National Cartographic Fund of RK.
State support helps private schools develop. They can apply for grants and receive subsidies. They operate according to state educational standards while introducing authorial programs at the same time. It seems to me that against this background parents make a choice in favor of fee-paying alternatives. They transfer children from public schools to private ones where they seek more modern approaches to education. Parents focus on safety, service quality, and academic tranquility. Thus, a private school becomes not only a place for acquiring knowledge but also a kind of status marker.
Many schools indeed open with a strong pedagogical concept. Directors understand teaching methodology and the nurturing aspect. However, there is a lack of systemic vision of the school as an organization. This means: there are students, teachers, classes, even IT solutions in the school, but there are no processes that connect all these elements into one coherent whole.
Private schools strive to meet expectations and justify fees. They already use various digital platforms, and implementation of "systems" appears to have taken place. But such tools often do not match the level of responsibility assumed by non-state institutions. In practice, this looks like systems being overloaded, poorly connected, inconvenient for teachers, opaque for parents, and formalistic for administration. As a result, it does not work as expected by those paying tuition fees.
To effectively manage a school, it's important to have a clear overview. It's essential to understand how class enrollment works, where applications are lost, at what stage parents drop out, why some classes fill up faster than others. It's crucial to know which educators are overburdened, where scheduling bottlenecks begin, and how workload is distributed within the team. This isn't something you can keep track of mentally, especially when the school is growing rapidly.
I think it's important to clarify here: artificial intelligence is not meant to replace teachers, but rather assist managers. It can point out where performance drops began, identify risks before they become problems, highlight weaknesses in the process. But for this to work, the school must first be prepared. If there's chaos inside, no AI will save the situation. My task is to help establish a solid foundation upon which everything else can rely. Once the system is functioning properly, AI can benefit not only management but also students. In such cases, technology starts working practically and assists in managing the school. We had an example: a student missed several days of school, then returned and quickly caught up using an AI-based trainer. The system itself suggested topics, provided tasks, and tracked progress. That's exactly where I see its value.
Even schools with a strong brand and stable application flow eventually face similar questions: How to manage growth? Where are students getting lost? Why is conversion dropping during admissions? What's the actual effectiveness of the team?
The answers to these questions lie not in pedagogy, but in management. I'm confident: in 2025, a school is not just about curriculum and teachers. It's a business model requiring systematic approach. Just like any other business, what's critical here are processes, transparency, accountability distribution, digital framework, and data-driven decision-making capabilities. And as we know, where there's data—there's AI. Such tools detect where a child's grades start slipping, suggest adjustments if teachers are overwhelmed, help create convenient schedules, and promptly indicate issues arising within the school. They collect feedback from parents and students continuously—not just at the end of each quarter. Leadership responds quicker and more accurately, not once a year based on survey results. This affects everyone: both kids and staff alike.
At Sailet, we're launching automation systems for private schools. Submit your request — we'll help turn your idea into a tangible product!
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