Children's development centers: 58% offer after-school care, 46% open on Saturday

Kazakhstan has 1,635 children's development centers. 1,006 of them, or 62%, prepare kids for school. 942 centers, 58%, run extended-day groups. Next come speed reading at 38%, English at 36%, and Montessori at 26%

What do children's development centers offer?

Two programs hold the market: school preparation and after-school care. Everything else is an add-on to them

26% of centers teach Kazakh and 18% teach Russian. There are fewer language classes in these centers than it seems: people more often go to separate language schools for that

In which cities is school preparation most common?

If a child already attends primary school, lessons and clubs can be organized right there. One example is the private primary school Samuryq Mektebi in Almaty, built for pupils in grades 0-4. It is our partner on ooon.ai, located at Shugyla microdistrict, Dala Street 145. The school runs on weekdays from 09:30 to 17:00, and tuition is 180,000 ₸ a month. That amount includes three meals a day, homework done inside the school, and six clubs, and no homework is assigned for home

In Aktobe almost every center prepares kids for school, in Astana half of them do. After-school care is the other way around: Astana is higher, 61% against 55% in Almaty

Are children's development centers open on weekends?

1,367 centers listed a schedule. 46% work on Saturday and 27% on Sunday

Speech therapists are open on Sundays just as rarely, at 24%. Children's classes are placed on weekdays after school, and the market is built around that. A working parent is left with Saturday, and fewer than half of the centers keep it open

The average rating is 4.77 across 1,461 rated centers. The directory average is 4.57

What this means for you

1. 58% of centers offer after-school care. If you need it together with classes, look for both at once, or you will have to drive your child to two places
2. Saturday is open at 46% of centers, Sunday at 27%. Check the weekend before you choose a center
3. Mental arithmetic and speed reading are an add-on to the main program, not a separate service: 20% and 38% of centers offer them
4. A quarter of the centers have classes in Kazakh. Ask about this with a separate question

What this means for an owner

Saturday is the emptiest shelf in the niche. Fewer than half of the centers keep it, and Saturday is exactly when working parents are free

The second open spot is online: 18%. For school preparation the format is debatable, but for speed reading, mental arithmetic, and languages it works

Where the numbers come from

The open 2GIS directory, August 2026. We took the active children's development centers of Kazakhstan: 1,635 listings, with a schedule given for 1,367 and a rating for 1,461. Programs come from the declared services, and shares are counted out of all 1,635 listings. A center usually runs several programs at once, so the shares add up to more than a hundred. By city, we show cities with at least thirty centers