iQanat Peer-to-Peer

Together we learn. Together we grow.

In Kazakhstan, 66% of schools are located in rural areas, where students fall behind their urban peers by the equivalent of one academic year (PISA 2022). The IQanat Peer-to-Peer volunteer program bridges this gap through student-led mentorship: 1,212 high-performing students voluntarily teach 14,958 rural schoolchildren. The model is highly scalable, turning students into agents of change.

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Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Updated April 2026

Created by

Public Foundation "IQanat Educational Foundation"

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Web presence

2024

Established

5.5K 2025

11K 2026

1

Countries

All students

Target group

Above all, rural children need to feel that they matter — that they belong to something bigger, that they are seen and heard. That sense of belonging — not just knowledge — is what changes the trajectory of a child's life. Systemic problems in education are real and deep. But behind every statistic is a real child who simply needs someone nearby who believes in them. At the learner level: greater confidence and stronger academic results. Not just improved grades, but a shift in mindset — "I can do this. I deserve this. The world is open to me."At the community level: a culture of mutual support, where success is measured not only by personal achievement, but by how many others you have helped rise alongside you. At the system level: we want peer-to-peer learning to become a replicable practice — in rural and urban schools alike — as a powerful complement to the traditional teacher-student model. Most importantly, the project builds a community of empathetic, responsible young leaders. Young people who don't just acquire knowledge — they pass it on. They will be the drivers of positive change in education. In the long term, we see IQanat Peer-to-Peer as a model that scales beyond Kazakhstan — across Central Asia and the developing world. Because the challenge of rural education is a global one. And children who are ready to help each other exist everywhere.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

In May 2025, Harvard Business School published a case study on IQanat Educational Foundation — recognition that few organisations from Central Asia ever receive. But behind that recognition lies a real problem the foundation is tackling every day. In the 1990s, a mass exodus of qualified teachers from rural areas to cities created a systemic staffing crisis whose effects are still felt today. TIMSS-2023 tells a troubling story: rural 4th graders score 27–36 points below urban peers in mathematics and science; rural 8th graders lag behind by 17–30 points. On average, rural students fall behind by 1 to 1.5 school years.Nobel laureate Esther Duflo demonstrated that education is the most powerful tool against poverty. Each additional year of quality schooling raises a person's future income by 8–10% and breaks the intergenerational cycle of poverty. In 2018, Kazakhstani entrepreneurs founded IQanat Foundation to give rural children an equal chance. Its annual Olympiad reaches 60,000+ students; the top performers receive full scholarships to IQanat High School of Burabay — a boarding school offering Cambridge A-Level programmes. But the foundation went further. One of the key projects within the IQanat ecosystem is IQanat Peer-to-Peer - an independent educational initiative that evolved from a simple idea: the most successful students voluntarily become mentors for rural peers, filling knowledge gaps where teachers are scarce. Powered by giving back.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

IQanat Peer-to-Peer is an online ecosystem where top students teach those just starting their journey. Three tiers: Senior Curators (IQanat alumni) coordinate Peer Tutors — senior students who hold two live sessions per week via Google Meet — for Peer Learners: rural 14–15-year-olds who reached Round 2 of the IQanat Olympiad. In Kazakhstan's villages, most schools are small and under-resourced, private tutoring is unaffordable, and a struggling student has nowhere to turn. Peer-to-Peer fills that gap: a peer teaches a peer — free, online, from any village. All learning runs on a proprietary LMS: 9 courses across 7 subjects. Content is created by IQanat alumni, aligned with the national curriculum, and reviewed by teachers. Each lesson structure: theory → video → practice → homework → monthly test. Gamification keeps motivation high. Does it work? Tutor Dias Abdylkhak taught 79 students physics in one year — 22 of them won full grants to IQHSB. One teenager from a village — 22 lives transformed. Survey of 8,377 participants: 67.5% said the project genuinely helped them prepare for the Olympiad. Peer learners NPS: 72%. When asked "How much did participating in the project help you better understand your school lessons?" — 66.1% of respondents gave the highest rating of 9 or 10 out of 10. "With my tutor's support, I stopped being afraid of difficult topics and began learning with more confidence." — Layla Nazirkhan, Participant, Akmola Region.

How has it been spreading?

The project covers all 17 regions and 177 districts of Kazakhstan. Its core strength is continuity: every tutor works with students from their own region and village. Those who were once helped become mentors for the next generation — a culture of giving back that reproduces itself within the community. Over two seasons: 36,310 online and 2,047 offline learning hours. In 2024–2025: 4,958 learners, 426 tutors. In 2025–2026: 10,000 learners, 934 tutors. Curators grew from 74 to 150; subjects from 5 to 7. The most powerful evidence lies in Olympiad results: each year, 60,000 8th-grade students enter Round 1; 10,000 advance to Round 2; only 1,000 make it to the Final. In the 2024–2025 academic year, 550 Peer-to-Peer participants (55%) were among the 1,000 finalists. Of these, 65.6% became winners and were awarded full scholarships IQHSB. In 2025–2026, the figure increased to 948 finalists from among programme participants -representing 94.8% of all Olympiad finalists. Yet the greatest achievement is not numerical. A living community has formed for 2 seasons — bound by one value: helping each other. Tutors return without pay because they believe in the mission. Learners become tutors. Tutors become curators. The system runs on intrinsic motivation. That is real sustainability. Looking ahead: 30,000 learners, 3, 200 tutors, targeted regional support within 2–3 years.

How have you modified or added to your innovation?

The platform now features expanded analytics — curators and tutors track each learner's progress in real time, identifying those who need support before they fall behind.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

If you are interested in adapting the IQanat Peer-to-Peer model to your own context, the first step is to reach out to our team. To implement the model, three core elements are needed: a pool of motivated student tutors, a target group of learners, and a digital platform for coordination. We will arrange a short consultation to understand your situation: who your target audience is, what educational gaps exist in your region, and whether there is a pool of potential tutors available. Following that, we are ready to share the project methodology, the structure of our learning courses, and the operational processes developed over two seasons of implementation. If needed, we can organise a live demonstration of the LMS platform. The model does not require significant financial investment — the key resource is motivated people. We believe that young people who are ready to help each other exist everywhere, and our goal is to help you build that culture within your own community. The project operates in Kazakh, Russian, and English. We welcome partnership with educational organisations, foundations, and government bodies from any country. Contact: info@iqanat.kz, shagirova.l@iqanat.kz, aruzhan@iqanat.kz

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Implementation steps

Step 1: Define your project concept

Identify the problem and target audience — study regional education research or survey children to uncover real needs. Define participant roles: curators, tutors, learners. Assess available resources — financial, human, technological. Design a motivation system: material (grants, merchandise) and non-material (recognition, skills, career prospects). A clear concept is the foundation of everything.

Step 2: Choose your format and tools

Decide on a format: online, offline, or hybrid. For online delivery, build a digital platform with role-specific features: analytics and monitoring for curators, lesson management for tutors, and a user-friendly progress dashboard for learners. The platform must ensure transparency and scalability.

Step 3: Develop educational content

Create a syllabus aligned with the national curriculum — or design standalone programmes on specific themes: AI literacy, media literacy, language learning, etc. Survey students: what do they want to learn? Local context matters. Each lesson should include theory, practice, a video, and homework. Content must be accessible to tutors as well as learners. All materials are reviewed by experienced teachers.

Step 4: Select and train tutors

Define selection criteria: academic performance, motivation, communication skills. Run a competitive selection process. Before launch, train tutors on how to explain concepts clearly, give feedback, and work with students at different levels. Provide handbooks. A great tutor is not just a high performing student — they are someone who can inspire and support others.

Step 5: Register participants and form learning groups

All participants register on the platform and receive personal accounts. Learners are assigned to groups and matched with tutors. Before the first session, learners complete an entry assessment (Point A). At the end of the cycle, an exit assessment (Point B) measures growth. Comparing results reveals each student's individual progress.

Step 6: Run a pilot

Do not launch at full scale immediately. Start with a pilot — 1–2 regions, a small cohort of tutors and learners. This surfaces weaknesses in content, platform, and processes before you scale. Collect feedback from all participants: what works, what doesn't, what needs to change.

Step 7: Data Collection and Impact Evaluation

Regularly measure outcomes: students’ academic progress, attendance, engagement, and NPS. Conduct surveys among students and tutors. Data serves as the foundation for improving the programme and demonstrating its effectiveness to partners and donors.

Step 8: Scale up

Use pilot data to expand: add tutors, regions, and subjects. Build out the curator system — senior participants coordinate new ones. The model should grow organically, grounded in the principle of continuity: today's learner is tomorrow's tutor.

Step 9: Build a motivation and retention system

Sustainability depends on how engaged and motivated participants are. Create recognition systems: tutor leaderboards, public acknowledgement of achievements, certificates, merchandise, and learning opportunities. Non-material motivation — a sense of belonging to a larger mission, pride in a student's success — often outperforms any reward.

Step 10: Build partnerships

The project should not exist in isolation. Seek partners — schools, universities, businesses, local government. Partnerships bring additional resources, legitimacy, and reach.

Step 11: Ensure long-term sustainability

From day one, think about how the project will continue without constant external funding. Build a model that regenerates from within: alumni become curators, curators mentor new tutors. Document everything — methodology, processes, results. This enables the model to be replicated in new regions without losing quality.