The educational system in Kazakhstan is conducted in two languages - Kazakh and Russian and consists of several levels of state and private educational establishments: infant schools, elementary (or primary) schools, comprehensive secondary schools, colleges and academies. The constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan fixes the right of citizens of the republic on free-of-charge secondary education which is obligatory. The constitution prohibits any discrimination on the basis of language or ethnicity and guarantees equal rights in education regardless of nationality. Children start school at the age of 7 and finish at 17. As a rule a child attends the school, located in the neighborhood. However, in big cities there are so-called special schools, offering more in depth studies of the major European languages (English, French, German) or the advanced courses in physics and mathematics and children, attending one of such schools may have to commute there from home.
As for the school day, it usually starts at 8 o'clock in the morning and students have 4-6 lessons. They have such lessons as Maths, Physics, Chemistry, IT, PT, Kazakh and Foreign Languages, Arts, Music, Literature, Geography, History, Technology, Biology and some other subjects. The lessons are over by 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon. If the school is big some students can start their classes at 2pm and their lessons are over at about 7pm.
