Ibrai Altynsarin, outstanding educator: biography, works

Every nation is proud of its politicians, public figures, poets and writers. In modern Kazakhstan, Ibrai Altynsarin's memory is especially honored, he dedicated his entire conscious life to the elimination of illiteracy, to the inclusion of the Kazakh people to the values of Russian and world culture.

Ibrai Altynsarin is an outstanding educator of the XIX century, ethnographer, poet, prose writer, translator. Thanks to his efforts, the first schools appeared on the Kazakh land, in which children from simple families could study.

Childhood and youth

Ibrai Altynsarin was born on November 2, 1841. Unfortunately, almost nothing is known about his parents. According to some reports, Altynsarin's father was killed in 1844. From a young age, Ibrai was in the care of Grandfather Balgoži Janburchin, who held the biy's honorary post in his village. Biya is a magistrate, mentor, adviser, public figure.

Until the last days of his life, Ibrai Altynsarin did not forget his small homeland - the village of Zhanburchi, which was part of the Arakaragai volost of Mykolayiv district. Today in memory of the great countryman the former volost was renamed into Altynsarinsky district in the territory of Kostanay region of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

When the boy was nine years old, he was sent to a newly opened special school for indigenous children. The educational institution was in the city of Orenburg, teaching there was conducted mainly in Russian. The guys who came from different localities lived in an orphanage organized here.

Along with classes at school, Ibrahim devotes all his free time to reading. Among his favorite works of world literature are the poems of Byron, Goethe and Shakespeare, the poems of Pushkin and Lermontov, the creations of the eastern authors of Firduosi and Navoi.

Having successfully completed a seven-year course of study, Ibrai Altynsarin remains in Orenburg at the insistence of the authorities, working as an interpreter in the regional government.

The first steps in the field of education

The post of interpreter does not attract a young man, Ibrahim dreams of teaching. In 1860, he finally leaves Orenburg and moves to the fortress Turgai (now a city of the same name), where he was offered a job as a teacher in a Russian gymnasium. But Ibrai Altynsarin, whose biography vividly proves love for his people, puts a lot of effort into making access to knowledge possible for Kazakh children.

A few years later, Altynsarin is building an elementary school building for boys from Kazakh families to collect money from his local population and his personal savings. The opening of this educational institution took place on January 8, 1864. The school opened the doors for the first students.

In March of the same year the young teacher wrote in his diary: "With the same feeling with which the hungry wolf attacks the sheep, I am glad that I have the opportunity to involve Kazakh children in knowledge. Only three months have passed, and my students have already mastered the skills of writing and reading. I believe that in a few years they will join the ranks of the most educated people of our society. I hope that I will be able to cultivate in them the best human qualities, such as honesty, morality, justice. "

Administrative work

In those days, as, indeed, today, there was a great need for educated, comprehensively developed personalities. Therefore Altansarina is often invited to various positions in the state apparatus. In the years 1868-1874. He serves as a clerk in the city administration, in the following years he holds the position of a judge, deputy head of the county, performs the duties of a county governor in his absence, inspects the work of educational institutions.

Occupying responsible positions in the education system, Ibrai Altynsarin seeks the opening of new schools in various cities of Mykolaiv Uyezd. Only during 1884 buildings of educational institutions were built in Aktyubinsk, Nikolayev, Irgiz, Yelets and Turgai fortresses. A little later, with the direct participation of Altynsarin, the Turgai Trade School and the Irgiz Seminary were established. Unprecedented at the time, the achievement of a pedagogue-innovator can be called the opening of a comprehensive Kazakh school for girls, who took the first pupils in 1887.

Creation of educational methodical base

Saying that Ibrai Altynsarin is an outstanding educator, one can not fail to mention his enormous contribution to the system of national education. Thanks to the efforts of this remarkable person, the first textbooks in the Kazakh language and Russian manuals for Kazakh schools were published. Altynsarin participated in the development of the national educational base, and personally wrote and published several educational books.

In 1879 he published his Kazakh Reader, and ten years later - a collection of literature for reading in a Kazakh language school called Maktubat. Peru teacher belongs to the methodological manual for teachers "An initial guide to teaching Kyrgyz to the Russian language."

Contribution to national culture

Sometimes the students who study the history of schoolchildren have the question: "Ibrai Altynsarin is the author of what works?" It should be noted here that Altynsarin was not a fundamental scientist, and his main occupation was the involvement of the broad masses of the indigenous population. Therefore, he did not write scientific works, directing his talent and knowledge to create books for children and youth, processing works of folklore, translating the best examples of world literature into the Kazakh language.

Ibrai Altynsarin's works are dozens of constructed schools for Kazakh children, hundreds of grateful students and thousands of followers of his glorious cause. One of the most significant contributions of Altynsarin to the national culture is the creation of an alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet, which gave impetus to the development of Kazakh script.

Literary Activity

The creative heritage of the great teacher is represented by ethnographic sketches, translations of works of Russian and world literature, author's poems, stories, fables. A huge niche is occupied by folk tales, carefully collected and processed by the writer. Ibrai Altynsarin is rightly considered the ancestor of Kazakh literature for children and youth. By his diligence the conversational Kazakh speech acquired modern literary forms.

In "Anthology" for Kazakh schools, created by Altynsarin, translations of short stories by L. N. Tolstoy and K. Ushinsky, poems by A. Pushkin and M. Lermontov, works by other Russian classics. The educational talent of Altynsarin had a huge impact on the cultural and spiritual development of the Kazakh people.

Gratitude of contemporaries and descendants

For enlightening, professional and public activities, Ibrai Altynsarin was repeatedly awarded with the awards of the Russian Empire, he was given the rank of a valid state councilor. Today the names of the great son of the Kazakh people are educational institutions, squares and streets in many cities and villages of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

In the city of Kostanay, on the site of one of the first schools organized by Altynsarin, a memorial museum was created. In the halls of this cultural and historical institution you can see colorful displays that convey the atmosphere of a century and a half ago. A huge interest in visitors is caused by a sculptural composition, where the great teacher Ibrai Altynsarin sits surrounded by his students. A photo of the reconstructed interior of the school room you see on this page.