Until the 1950s Astana (Aqmola), was a tiny mining town. Then Nikita Khruschev announced his Virgin Lands scheme to turn 250,000 sq km of Kazakhstan steppe into wheat fields.
Following independence from the Soviet Union a major economic depression cut "public financing" for education in Kazakhstan, "which dropped from 6% of gross domestic product in 1991 to about 3% in 1994, before rising to 4% in 1999."
Following independence from the Soviet Union a major economic depression cut "public financing" for education in Kazakhstan, "which dropped from 6% of gross domestic product in 1991 to about 3% in 1994, before rising to 4% in 1999."