Introduction. Due to the acute shortage of IT specialists, programmers, specialists for engineering and high-tech industries, STEM education is becoming a fundamental integrative basis for training specialists in the field of high technologies. Digitalization and the search for ways to intensify STEM education require further consideration and empirical research based study. The purpose of the study is to identify the interest of schoolchildren in STEM disciplines, to study the factors and features of their teaching in general education organizations in Russia and the Republic of Kazakhstan, to identify ways to solve the problem of STEM education digitalization for further development of senior schoolchildren motivation to professional self-determination and education in the scientific and technical field of activity. Materials and methods. In accordance with the problematic, integrative and multidisciplinary approaches, in order to develop analytical thinking and technical abilities of students, questionnaires for target groups were elaborated and used in the study: the questionnaire for students of general education organizations; the questionnaire for teachers of STEM disciplines. 952 Russian schoolchildren and 166 STEM teachers from the cities of Rostov-on-Don, Volgodonsk (Rostov region), Belgorod (Belgorod region) and Kaliningrad (Kaliningrad region), as well as 200 schoolchildren and 306 teachers from 20 localities of the Republic of Kazakhstan took part in the survey. Results. The majority of respondents (72%) are satisfied with the teaching of STEM subjects, 62% consider them interesting. It was revealed that the factors that negatively affect the motivation of schoolchildren to study STEM disciplines include insufficient use of ICT, the lack of modern educational and methodological support. The factors that negatively affect the quality of training of students in STEM disciplines include a weak level of formation of professional competencies in the subject, psychological, pedagogical, methodological and technological training of STEM teachers, the lack of effective interaction of educational organizations and industrial partners in the introduction of STEM disciplines, insufficient level of professional motivation of teachers and lectors. Ways to solve the problem of digitalization of STEM education are to create STEM centers that provide educational and consulting services to teachers of STEM disciplines, tutors, students and schoolchildren, in the use of digital laboratories in STEM disciplines.