NIS August Conference: Academic Integrity in the Age of New Technologies

Today, scientific technologies and artificial intelligence are developing at a tremendous rate, and although digital advances bring many advantages, they also pose questions related to plagiarism, copyright protection, the development of creative thinking and academic integrity among young people. These and other issues were discussed in detail at the traditional August conference of the autonomous educational organization "Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools" in Aktau.

Chairman of the Board of the autonomous educational organization "Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools" Anuar Zhangozin, Deputy Akim of Mangystau region Zvira Esbergenova, Director of the Foundation for Sustainable Development of Education Daniyar Toktarbayev, Head of the Project Office of the League of Academic Honesty Nurgul Makhanbayeva, Director of the Digital Institute of Continuing Education Astana IT attended the opening of a large-scale conference on "Academic Honesty in the era of new Technologies". Yermek Alimzhanov University, as well as about 100 teachers and 3,500 took part in the traditional format – remotely.

The NIS August Conference is a traditional platform that brings together all teachers of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools to discuss topical issues of education.

In his report, Chairman of the NIS Board Anuar Zhangozin spoke about the contribution of Intellectual Schools to the development of the quality of education in the country and about the progress of a number of social projects. The Chairman also shared the results of the project "1000 leaders of changes in education", aimed at forming a personnel reserve, initiated as part of the President's instructions.

– To date, 438 teachers have improved their qualifications within the framework of this project, 150 of them have been appointed to the position of school director. Another 159 deputy school principals are taking advanced training courses," said Anuar Zhangozin.

Intellectual schools have become not just an educational institution, but an organization capable of monitoring the field of education and providing methodological support to the country's secondary schools. Daniyar Toktarbayev, Director of the Foundation for Sustainable Development of Education, noted this during the conference and focused on the advantages of the NIS system for the development of secondary schools. He also noted the importance of the social project "Development of the potential of support schools in rural areas."

At the plenary sessions, Galiya Alzhanova, Deputy Director of the Center for Educational Programs, spoke in detail about the rules for mastering academic integrity within the framework of the NIS-Program educational program. Managing Director of NIS Daniyar Temirtasov shared expert materials on how the principles of academic integrity are respected in the world, stressed the importance of teaching students to respect copyright from an early age at the state level.

The directors of Intellectual Schools also shared options for organizing the educational process for the upcoming academic year, successful practices, as well as areas that require attention. The discussion included the presentation of analytical reports, results and statistics on student performance.

– Honesty in learning contributes not only to academic achievements, but also to the personal development of students, – said Daniyar Ualiev, Director of NIS Petropavlovsk.

Over the course of five days, teachers of Intellectual Schools conducted an analysis of the work done, discussed topics such as digitalization in education, academic integrity in the context of exam literacy.