eduKate Singapore

Almaty, Kazakhstan

BE!

“Equatorians” in a rather “fish out of water” situation.

Kazakhstan, the last Soviet republic to declare independence and the world’s largest landlocked country with a population of 18.8 million people. A Russian-speaking country that is advancing economically at a breakneck pace and nothing like what a particular movie make them out to be. (for your own safety, just don’t mention Borat while you are there)

Upon landing, here’s what strikes us immediately: Warmest and friendliest country ever. We totally felt like a fish out of water and far removed from our safety net of Singapore.

It seems like everyone knows each other here, which is not true of course, but you will feel that way because everyone just speaks to each other as if they had been friends like since… forever. No barriers, no facade, no hesitation and no trepidation when strangers approach each other on the streets. They just start talking like they know each other since like forever. They don’t even need to say the words “hello” to start a conversation, they just start talking, like they know each other since like… forever.

It’s a most uncanny behaviour for us Singaporeans, and that just reminds us how much we need to smile at each other when we are back. We are back of course by the time you read this. Still smiling and looking foolish to some stranger we meet right now I bet, for this trip made us rethink our lives, slightly. But that’s why we travel ain’t it? To make us rethink who we are, and what needs to be readjusted. In this case, be friendly and smiley, even if it makes us look goofy. But hey, we have to start somewhere. It starts with one, and ends with all. We try, we try and that’s all worth living for.

I digress, back to Kazakhstan and why we took that trip. We were there to meet up with Professor Sholpan and help her with her education projects, which was part of the reason why UK was a stopover before coming here. Doing research work in London and Cambridge for her, then its a flight over to Kazakhstan and two weeks of meeting schools and students.

In that time frame, we met up with students and teachers that were extremely curious to meet us “equatorians”, a word we shall now coin and take credit for, because it certainly felt we were quite the in vogue equatorial and hot, in the literal sense, foreigners that looked thoroughly incongruous in their polar country.

As you will find out, Kazakhstan is a rather chilly country. Minus 40 degrees Celsius kind of chilly. So, we living in equatorial Singapore are definitely looking pretty extraterrestrial to them and a rather novel wonder as to why would we even take a flight into a Russian-speaking nation that is quite protected geographically from the rest of the world. So shall we just call ourselves Equatorians, for all who stay nearest to equator.

We have proof of the arctic conditions, yes, we have it in concrete evidence, the photos above, where it looks like a ski resort, is actually a ski resort called Shymbulak, famously visited by Prince Harry. And whilst we were there, yep, minus 40 deg C and the piste was shut for the day.

Again, I apologise for digressing. So what you see in the rest of the photos are our workshops, a lot of workshops. A lot of workshops arranged with Prof Sholpan to meet as many people to talk about education and the next paradigm shift. Of course, we, being the alien flavour of the week, took a lot of questions of being an equatorian. Some rather inquisitive and expository, and others, just pure happiness as they learn about Singapore and how we became so interested in education and a proper nation in such a short time. They appreciate how our driven school system connects us to the world and how smart our school looks, as they came prepared, having googled our schools and all. They cannot believe the investment we spend, just on education alone.

So count our lucky stars, because we seldom look up and count those lucky stars do we? I do. Or should I say, I try to at the very least.

So what did we learn from this trip? There’s a sense that we are quite different, but yet the same. As much as we are different, we are all somehow, still the same. Speaking Russian, or English, living in a cold climate in Almaty or a hot one like ours, we are always curious to know what others in this world are like. Be it different, or the same, the burning curiosity gives us reason to go find out more. Which finally answers the question they have all been asking, why were we there in Kazakhstan.

Because a fish out of water, given the chances brought by a few million years, shall end up developing a pair of lungs that will eventually allow us to fly in a metal plane to a foreign country to see wondrous things, and to feel, taste and smell foreignness. It took that first fish to risk it all, so why not us then?

Be fearless, be you.

Explore the connected learning guides

Choose the question that brought you here. Open one useful guide, try a small task, and stop when you have what you need.

Take one question further

The same learning habit can travel across subjects, while each subject keeps its own methods. These routes help you notice a difficulty, understand one part of it, and return to something you can do.

A word is familiar, but using it is difficult.

Move from recognising a word to retrieving it in a new context. Understand vocabulary plateaus.

Try it without the guide: Choose one word you already know. Close the guide and use it in a new sentence. Explain why it fits; try another context tomorrow.

A piece of writing has ideas, but the reader loses the thread.

Make the order of events and the links between sentences clear. Explore composition writing.

Try it without the guide: Choose one short paragraph. Read the relevant explanation, close it, and revise the paragraph. Ask someone to tell you what happened and why.

The Mathematics seems familiar, but marks still disappear.

Find the first point where the working stops being reliable. Find Secondary 4 A-Math mark leakage.

Try it without the guide: For a Secondary 4 A-Math question you have attempted, locate the first uncertain line. Repair that step, then try a comparable question without the worked answer.

A Science fact is remembered, but the explanation is incomplete.

Connect the evidence to a scientific idea and the resulting change. Follow the Primary Science learning route.

Try it without the guide: Choose a familiar Primary Science example. Explain the evidence, the idea and the result without notes. Then change one condition and explain your prediction.

Two accounts of the world seem to disagree.

Check the question, source, date and evidence before combining claims. Explore the World Knowledge research library.

Try it without the guide: Take one claim. Find the source best placed to support it, note its date, and state what remains uncertain. Return to your original question.

There is plenty of help, but independence is hard to see.

Check what the learner can understand and do after support is removed. Understand how education works.

Try it without the guide: Choose one small task the child has practised. Agree on a calm, brief attempt without prompts. Use what happens to choose one next step, then stop.

For the structure behind these connections, read the eduKateSingapore runtime manifest and the eduKate ecosystem boot contract. The reader map describes public navigation; those manifests preserve the wider ownership and return rules.

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