When John Coles decided to take up a leadership post at an international school in Kazakhstan in 2018, friends and colleagues in the UK thought, frankly, that he was mad.

Not least because many people’s knowledge of Kazakhstan was limited to Borat, the fictional Kazakh journalist played by English actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.

But when Coles visited the country - which gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 - he says he “very much fell in love with Kazakhstan - the people, the culture, everything”.

He is not alone. The leaders of other schools in Kazakhstan interviewed by Tes also speak warmly about their experience of the country, which they describe as “a hidden gem”, and its people.

Nevertheless, today they say it still remains “off most people’s radar” even though job opportunities for teachers and leaders there seem set to grow. In September, Kazakhstan was identified by ISC Research as one of five emerging international school markets in 2025.

Between July 2020 and July 2025, ISC Research data shows a 62 per cent rise in the number of international schools in Kazakhstan, from 26 schools to 42; a 67 per cent increase in teaching staff, from 1,270 to 2,123; and a 73 per cent rise in the market’s total fee income, from $140 million to $242 million (£105 million to £182 million).

Here we speak to four international school leaders about what it is like to live and work in the country.

International schools in Kazakhstan: behaviour and safeguarding

Pupil behaviour is generally very good in Kazakhstan, says Simon Mills, who has worked for over five years in the country and is headmaster of Haileybury Almaty, a British curriculum school in Kazakhstan’s biggest city.

Education is “highly valued”, he says, and there is an expectation from Kazakh families that their children will study hard and do well.

“The Kazakh students are a very positive mix and reflect a crossover between the stereotypical hard-working Far Eastern student combined with the openness and good humour of a European student,” Mills says.

Coles, headmaster at Haileybury Astana, echoes this, saying teachers are held in “very high respect” and there is “huge respect for elders”

He adds that pupils are“very focused”, often with an entrepreneurial spirit inherited from their parents. Some students, for example, take advantage of having a border with China to set up a sideline buying goods in that country and selling them on, Coles says.

However, on safeguarding, Mills explains that practices are less advanced than in the UK, and Coles echoes this, saying: “When you first talk about safeguarding in Kazakhstan, there’s a tendency for people to think you are talking about health and safety. It’s not that Kazakhstan is unwilling to adopt safeguarding - it’s that it’s new to them.”

Given this, Mills says “good international schools have introduced a strong lead” when it comes to safeguarding “along with a well-needed focus on wellbeing”.

“Parents and pupils very much appreciate this post-Covid focus on improved mental and physical wellbeing, and it is a good balance to the Kazakh hard-working characteristic,” he adds.

Recruitment and retention

One of the biggest challenges for international schools in Kazakhstan is attracting staff. The teaching market and environment are less well-understood by Western teaching staff, who tend to know little about the country says Mills.

Coles, meanwhile, describes Kazakhstan as being “off most people’s radar”. Central Asia, he points out, tends to be somewhere Brits fly over on their way to Dubai, Singapore or Thailand.

Coles, therefore, doesn’t so much feel he has to sell his school to prospective staff, as sell the country.

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To this end the school leaders talk about using video to pull back the curtain on what life is like in Kazakhstan - these films feature everyday life like supermarkets, parks, restaurants but also “beautiful landscapes”, all in a bid to raise awareness of what Kazakhstan has to offer.

Michael Seaton, the founding head of Charterhouse Almaty, is taking a similar approach.

When we speak he has only been in the country for eight weeks and the school, which is under construction, won’t accept its first cohort of students until next year, but he has just been filmed doing a scavenger hunt in the city to showcase its “incredible alpine views” (the city is set in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains) and the “wild and wonderful” things you can do, as the school’s recruitment campaign gets underway.

Already, Seaton says, they have received some strong applications.

But, he believes, where schools often go wrong with recruitment is failing to maintain contact in what he describes as “the darkness” between appointment and arrival in country. This is when nerves and worry can creep in - during this period schools must keep in touch and build “excitement, engagement and knowledge”, he says.

However, while the heads stress all that the country has to offer - including warm summers and “four defined seasons” - there is no escaping the fact that winters are cold and temperatures can drop as low as -40C.

Emma Gricmanis, deputy head of Haileybury Astana’s junior school, remembers going for a walk for the first time after winter had set in. “The insides of your nostrils freeze and you get icicles on your eyelashes,” she says.

Equally, however, Gricmanis, who arrived in Kazakhstan in 2022, talks about snow that “sparkles like diamonds” and hanging out of her office window when it was -20C to capture it on camera.

Given this extreme cold, people don’t ask you how long you have lived in Kazakhstan, she says, they ask “how many winters have you done?”

When it comes to retention, therefore, being able to make it through winter is a key issue.

Gricmanis’ advice is to embrace the weather and get out - “not hibernate”. She has become addicted to ice hockey (she’s a season ticket holder) and makes the most of cultural events - a box seat at the ballet can be secured for just £8 and, when the ice is thick enough, cars race down the river Ishim.

Rules and regulations

International schools in Kazakhstan are given “much more freedom” than in many parts of the world, says Seaton, who, as a founding head, has set up schools in the United Arab Emirates, China, Qatar and Muscat.

There is, for instance, less of a requirement for compliance with ministry of education rules - which in other countries can include things like censorship of library books, he explains.

But that is not the case in Kazakhstan, Seaton says, and in terms of the curriculum, while there is an unspoken expectation that Kazakh should be taught, there is no legal obligation - although he stresses that at Charterhouse the language will be taught, as will the history of Kazakhstan, so children retain their Kazakh identity.

“When you are looking at curriculum, it’s more what’s the right thing to do as opposed to what we must do,” he says.

This is pertinent given that the majority of pupils attending international schools tend to be Kazakh, with a lower number of expat children.

There are no restrictions on which children can attend international schools, Mills points out.

However, while the rules might be lighter-touch, schools and teachers still have to be aware of some dos and don’ts, Coles explains.

Sex education is largely left to families and teaching about homosexual relationships is “an absolute no-go”, he says. Schools are also not allowed to deliver religious education of any kind - and there is a relatively new obligation on all schools to teach their pupils about artificial intelligence.

In terms of wider school management, Coles admits there can be “a lot of Soviet bureaucracy” and “a lot of paperwork”, but experience helps this to become less of an issue. “The longer you work here, the easier it gets,” he says - especially if you build good relationships with key people.

“It’s about building trust, being honourable and not letting people down. Once you get to know people, it makes it much easier.”

Competition and cooperation

New for-profit schools open every year in Kazakhstan, say Mills, who adds that the market is “now becoming quite crowded and not all new entrant schools will succeed”.

However, he says the early-entry, premium-tier international schools are now well established and that cooperation is in place between local and international schools for sports and academic challenges.

For instance, the Confederation of Almaty Schools and Headteachers is a regional organisation consisting of eight schools that organises mainly sporting events.

Coles also talks about cooperation between schools for sporting events and Olympiads (academic competitions where students compete in subjects like maths). In Astana he catches up regularly with a group of four or five heads, and he says the relationship between schools and leaders is similar to in the UK.

Lifestyle

The cost of living is cheap in Kazakhstan and the standard of living is high, says Coles, who also emphasises how safe the country is. Gricmanis also says the country is “super safe” and she feels comfortable going out by herself.

Kazakhstan is the size of Western Europe and has a population of 20 million. This means it has a low population density and there is, says Mills, plenty of wide-open space, including deserts and the Steppe (“an enormous grassland area that stretches one fifth of the way around the planet”).

Mills reels off other “amazing spectacles and natural features” including the Singing Dunes (sand dunes that make a jet-like sound in windy weather); the Charyn Canyon (sometimes cited as the second largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon); lakes and glaciers; and National Parks such as Borovoe (also known as Burabay) and Altyn-Emel.

Kazakhstan “is home to the tulip” and spring has “amazing colour”, he continues, and while winters might be exceptionally cold, the Tien Shan mountains give “ready access to skiing” - as well as hiking and cycling when the weather changes.

The changing of the seasons is also marked by festivals and celebrations - for instance, Nauryz is a celebration of the end of winter and the arrival of spring, and is strongly celebrated across Kazakhstan.

Each new school year, meanwhile, begins with “Knowledge Day” on 1 September - a big ceremony attended by all parents, staff and children, where the oldest and youngest students ring a bell to bring in the new year of learning.

In rural areas some people do still live in yurts, Coles confirms. He talks about going to see the horse farmers on Assy Plateau and feeling like he had been transported back to “medieval times”.

But that is contrasted with “very modern cities” where you can get everything from a Starbucks or a Burger King to a five-star meal at the Ritz-Carlton. Significantly, though, the price will be a fraction of what is paid in the UK.

The country is also a launchpad for exploring Central Asia, say Coles, which is home to largely “untapped, beautiful countries with Unesco world heritage sites”.

While overtourism has hit several European hotspots, Coles’ experience of travelling in and around Kazakhstan is that “you are often the only tourist there”, and then “you’ve got Korea six hours away and India and Dubai about three hours away”.

Coles concludes: “I wish more people knew about Kazakhstan - it would make my life a lot easier.”

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