A group of schools in Kazakhstan’s Akmola region is tendering for maintenance and licensing of the Alaqan Mektep biometric system. The activity suggests that palm-vein biometrics are moving beyond pilot phases and becoming embedded in day-to-day school operations, covering everything from building access to attendance tracking and cafeteria payments. The tenders add to a broader momentum around palm-based payments and identity systems, which includes recent pilots in duty-free retail and a wave of palm-identity platforms targeting consumer payments and airport retail deployments.
Recent notices on KazakhstanTenders reveal that two government schools are actively seeking maintenance services for the software and hardware complex of the biometric system, including specific support for turnstile hardware. One tender issued by School Lyceum No. 21 in Kokshetau covers technical maintenance services with an estimated value of about KZT 548,428. A second notice from the School-Gymnasium of the city of Kosshy seeks similar maintenance services for its biometric system with a value of roughly KZT 426,928. Both tenders have deadlines falling in September and October of 2025.
Separate tender notices on TenderImpulse describe purchases of licenses for the system by general education schools in Kokshetau. These notices specify CPV codes for biometric software, sensors, and license management tools. Alaqan Mektep is part of a domestic biometric platform developed by Kazakhstan-based Alaqan. Government and media sources describe it as a palm-vein identification system that offers three main products. Alaqan Pay handles retail payments, Alaqan Mektep services schools, and Alaqan HR is designed for enterprise use. The platform reportedly supports contactless palm-vein recognition in under a second and has been deployed across around 140 schools in the country. It provides parents with real-time notifications when children arrive or leave the premises.
This set of tenders highlights how vertically integrated local platforms can quickly become critical infrastructure in education. These systems combine physical access control, payments, and attendance into a single biometric stack. However, the large-scale deployment of children’s biometrics for routine school services raises difficult questions regarding data protection, parental consent, and system governance. As Kazakhstan invests in ongoing support and licensing for Alaqan Mektep, issues such as auditability and the ability to migrate away from a single proprietary provider will likely become more salient for education authorities. The experience will be closely watched by other markets where palm-vein and palm-print systems are currently being evaluated for school cafeterias and campus access.
Sources: KazakhstanTenders maintenance tender 1, KazakhstanTenders maintenance tender 2, TenderImpulse, Astana Times / Astana Hub, Google Play (Alaqan Mektep)
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
