Kazakh parents have encountered an unexpected problem: school textbooks for different subjects come in different sizes, making it difficult to buy covers. The situation sparked a wave of complaints on social media, prompting the Ministry of Education to respond, reports infohub.kz.
At a government briefing, Education Minister Zholdas Suleimenova acknowledged the issue and outlined the ministry's plans to address it. According to the minister, the possibility of creating a unified digital textbook format using artificial intelligence is currently being considered. A pilot project is already being tested in 40 schools.
"We are now looking at using artificial intelligence to create a new format for textbooks. We already have a pilot project underway, with testing in 40 schools. It's called EO-textbook or AI-textbook, where all our textbooks are combined on one platform," Suleimenova said.
The minister also commented on complaints about errors and shortages of textbooks in Shymkent. She said that this year the ministry conducted extensive analytical work and identified about 700 errors in educational literature. Publishers are now correcting them in stages, and textbooks are being reprinted.
"In several regions, including Shymkent, parents complained that new textbooks had not yet been provided. We responded promptly. At this stage, textbooks have already been purchased, and this week all students will be provided with them," the minister stated.
Separately, Suleimenova confirmed that the ministry is aware of the issue with different textbook formats and is currently studying possible solutions. According to the minister, a pilot project for the new textbook format is planned to be presented in late 2026 or early 2027.
"We are working on it now. I think we will show the pilot project in November-January. We are working together with a contractor organization and 15 publishing houses. Possibly, in January 2027, we will already show the first pilot," Suleimenova added.
Earlier, the editorial team of "Kursiv" conducted an experiment, bringing scales to a school in Astana to check the real physical burden on children.