During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kazakhstan followed strict global procedures. An important government decision was made to close schools and move to online learning. The sudden transition from traditional education to a distance learning format has caused some problems. In this regard, a comprehensive review of the problems of organizing online education during the first wave of the pandemic is important and significant. Therefore, there is now an immediate need for more detailed research in order to understand the factual effectiveness of various program measures during crisis conditions (pandemic, natural disaster, etc.) However, in the context of Kazakhstan, there is a limited amount of scientifically based research on the problems of organizing online learning during the pandemic, compared with studies by scientists from different countries. The novelty of the study is that in the article the authors pay special attention to the process of organizing online learning in the Kazakh context during the beginning of the pandemic, in order to give a realistic vision of a new way of learning in a crisis situation. Practical significance: this study complements the existing literature, demonstrating the role of online learning in supporting educational services in crisis situations