Within the framework of the initiative of the Head of State, announced at the National Kurultai, a republican project was launched.

The official presentation of the republican project "Reading Nation" took place in Shymkent. It was launched as part of the initiative of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, which he announced at the National Kurultai. The event was attended by university and college teachers, educators, young people and media representatives.

The project is being implemented on the initiative of the public foundation "Kitap Okityn Ult". Its main goal is to develop a reading culture in the country, increase the intellectual potential of the nation and provide citizens of all ages with quality literature.

The project has a comprehensive structure and covers six categories:

Reading school

Reading College

Reading University

Reading teacher

A civil servant reading

Reading family

Each participant must read 15 works from a list specially developed for their category. The list was approved based on the recommendations of an expert group, which included representatives of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, scientific institutes and the academic community. The content and volume of the books are selected in accordance with the age and professional focus of the readers. The shortest work is 120 pages, and the longest is no more than 700. On average, one book is 300-400 pages long.

According to the head of the project’s program group, Bekarystan Amanzholov, the main feature of the initiative is a large prize fund created to motivate reading.

"Currently, Kazakhstan ranks low in the world ranking of reading countries. Our goal is to improve this indicator and enter the top ten. To do this, we used the method of financial incentives to interest people. The winner in each category will be awarded a prize of 1 million tenge," he said.

The total prize fund is 40 million tenge. Each category is awarded:

1st place - 1,000,000 tenge

2nd place - 600,000 tenge

3rd place - 400,000 tenge

Activities within the project

The project will include various events:

for schoolchildren - literary competitions;

for college and university students - debates;

for teachers - quizzes and quizzes;

for civil servants - discussions on professional literature.

In the Reading Family category, members of families of at least five people will read and discuss works together, thereby setting an example.

From September to February, participants will read books and write short reviews of each work. The entire process is monitored through a special online system called “Readination.” This platform allows you to register the books you’ve read, track the participants’ ratings, and ensure the fairness of the competition.

The project is being implemented with the support of sponsors. The general sponsor is Alaygom Electric Company. The main partners include the AMANAT party and local executive bodies.

At the moment, the project is being implemented as a pilot in the Karaganda, Kostanay regions and in Shymkent. In the future, it is planned to cover the whole of Kazakhstan.