Nazarbayev_Intellectual_Schools
The Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) is a network of schools for exceptional students of age 11 to 18 throughout Kazakhstan.[1] The schools are named after Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev, former president of Kazakhstan, who has promoted the idea as a means of developing the intellectual life of the country.[2] Previously, each school focused primarily on a specific set of subjects: either physical sciences and mathematics, or chemical and biological sciences, as well as foreign languages.[2] Although this division is still represented in the names of schools, most schools share the same curriculum based on Cambridge O Level and A Level, except for NIS IB in Astana. Instruction is trilingual, in Kazakh, Russian and English,[1] shifting to exclusively English by the junior year.[2]