Ybyrai Altynsarin was born on October 20 (November 1), 1841 in the Araqaraghai region of the Nikolaev district (now the Altynsarinsky district of the Kostanay region). Ybyrai lost his father early, and was brought up by his grandfather, the famous biy - Balgozha Zhanburshin.

In 1850, Balgozha-biy assigned Ybyrai to a boarding school under the Orenburg Border Commission. Altynsarin successfully graduated from it in 1857 and for three years worked as a clerk for his grandfather Balgozha, the manager of the Uzunsky clan of the Kipchak tribe, the military foreman of the Orenburg Commission.

For some time Altynsarin worked as an interpreter (translator) in the Orenburg regional government. In 1860, the regional government instructed him to open an elementary school for Kazakh children in the Orenburg fortification (Turgai), in which he was appointed teacher of the Russian language. It was not easy to open a school in a remote town: there were no funds, there was no support from the regional government and local authorities. However, the difficulties did not stop Altynsarin. On January 8, 1864, the grand opening of the school took place. Thus began the educational activities of Altynsarin. For some time, Y. Altynsarin worked in the Turgai district administration as a clerk, served as senior assistant to the district head, and temporarily as a district judge.

In 1879, Altynsarin was appointed to the post of inspector of schools in the Turgai region. In this position, Y. Altynsarin worked until the end of his life.

In 1883, Altynsarin moved to the Nikolaevsky (Kostanay) district. In his native place in the Araqaraghai region, three kilometers from the city of Kostanay, on the bend of the Tobol River, on an island where there was a small lake, which later received the name "Inspektorskoye", he built a house where he lived and worked until his death.

Y. Altynsarin died on July 17, 1889 and was buried according to the Kazakh custom with a huge gathering of people not far from his house on the banks of the Tobol near the grave of his father. Before his death, Altynsarin was awarded the rank of state councilor, which at that time corresponded to a major general from infantry.

The outstanding historical merit of Altynsarin lies in the fact that on his initiative, with his very direct participation, a network of public secular schools was created in Kazakhstan. During his lifetime, he managed to open four two-class central Russian-Kyrgyz schools, one vocational school, one women's school, five regional schools, two schools for the children of Russian villagers.

The schools created by Altynsarin continued to exist after his death, but they could not develop. After the victory of October the schools were transformed into Soviet labor schools. One of these schools in the homeland of Y. Altynsarin, in the city of Kostanay, in the 1920s was transferred to the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Education of the Kazakh SSR and reorganized into a school - a commune. Then, before the Great Patriotic War, it was transformed into a secondary school with a boarding house for pupils. It was named after its founder Ybyrai Altynsarin.

Y. Altynsarin invested a lot of work in the training of teachers for primary public schools in the region, primarily for Kazakhs. On his initiative, a teacher's school was opened in Troitsk, a little later it was transferred to Orenburg.

Altynsarin not only opened secular folk schools, but also developed didactic principles for teaching and educating children, created educational and methodological manuals, regularly carried out inspection supervision, visiting each school annually, and took care of creating a library at each school.

Y. Altynsarin spent about three years developing the Kazakh alphabet based on Russian graphics. Even before his appointment to the post of inspector of schools in Turgai region, Altynsarin began compiling textbooks for students of Russian - Kazakh schools. In 1879, two textbooks "Kyrgyz chrestomathy", "Initial guide to teaching Kyrgyz the Russian language" were published. Both books of Y. Altynsarin occupy a special place in the history of culture of Kazakhstan as monuments of written literature, as well as as textbooks built on a scientific principle.

The publicistic heritage of Ybyrai Altynsarin is of great artistic, historical and educational value. The main part of it is the correspondence of the Kazakh educator with Russian friends, teachers and representatives of public education of various ranks.

Y. Altynsarin also was an ethnographer. His essays reveal the conservative essence of patriarchal - feudal life and customs of the Kazakhs. Altynsarin's works devoted to the transformation of the socio-economic system and economic life of the Kazakh village deserve special attention.