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"Education
that prepares children for life must go beyond fundamental
skills to stimulate creativity, intellectual
curiosity and
honest inquiry."
What's new
The Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa celebrates its fourth graduation ceremony
[Read]
AKA,M becomes a Microsoft Mentor School
[Read]
The Academies visit the USA
[Read]
Aga Khan Academy to be Established in Bangladesh
[Read]
Aga Khan Urges Educators to Embrace Pluralism and Diversity in Teaching: He urges intellectual humility and pluralism as essential to a 21st Century education
[Read]
Aga Khan to Build Uganda's First Aga Khan Academy: Economic development must be matched by human development
[Read]
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Play the Aga Khan Academies Video
Introduction to the Aga Khan Academies
The conviction that home-grown intellectual leadership of exceptional calibre is the best driver of society’s future development, and that many developing-country education systems are too engulfed by poverty and numbers to develop their talented young people, led His Highness the Aga Khan to found a network of catalytic centres of educational excellence around the world, known as the Aga Khan Academies.
To be located in
countries in Africa, South and Central Asia, and
the Middle East, the Aga Khan Academies will be an
integrated network of 18 residential schools offering
girls and boys an international standard of education
from pre-primary to secondary levels with a rigorous
academic and leadership experience. The Academies
will select students of promise, good character and
serious intent, regardless of a family’s
ability to pay. The Academies will identify and develop
teachers of the highest quality who are committed
to the all-round development of young people and
to their own professional growth as teachers. In
turn, these teachers, utilising the capacity provided
at each Academy, will offer their expertise for the
professional development of educators from neighbouring
government, private and not-for-profit schools. The
Academies are committed to excellence in every way,
not least in the creation of spacious and attractive
campuses that provide rich opportunities for students
and teachers to interact. The first Aga Khan Academy
opened in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2003.
Find out more on the Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa
The
academic programme is intended to foster an ethical and
public-minded approach. It is designed to enhance students’ academic
excellence, their sense of civic responsibility, their
understanding of global issues, and their analytical
and study skills. The programme reflects an understanding
of and great sensitivity to the local languages, history,
cultures and environment.
“An education must equip students with the
tools that enable them to adapt and thrive in a world
characterised by change,” His Highness the
Aga Khan has said. “In such an environment,
technical proficiency is not enough. Education that
prepares children for life must go beyond fundamental
skills to stimulate creativity, intellectual curiosity
and honest inquiry. Advancement and development,
both personal and societal, are dependant on these
elements. Innovation and progress arise from the
ability to approach a challenge in a new way and
offer a solution.”
The Aga Khan Academies’ education is built
on the framework of the internationally recognised
International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) programmes.
The IB is renowned for preparing students for admission
to the best universities in their own countries and
abroad. Enhanced by academic, co-curricular activities,
and opportunities for international study unique
to the Academies, this educational programme will
play an important part in fulfilling His Highness
the Aga Khan’s hope that these schools will
stimulate creativity and intellectual curiosity so
that students can adapt and thrive in a world of
rapid change, make informed judgments on life’s
daily challenges, and place those judgments in an
ethical framework.
The resources and linkages of the
Aga Khan Development Network play an important part
in the realisation and impact the Academies, its
teachers and its graduates will make. They benefit
from the intellectual and programmatic resources
at agencies such as the Aga Khan Foundation, the
Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the Aga Khan University
and the University of Central Asia, including their
Institutes of Educational Development. The Academies
draw upon long-standing partnerships with universities
such as Harvard, Oxford and Toronto, as well as renowned
college preparatory schools such as Phillips Academy,
Andover, in the USA and Shule Schloss, Salem, in
Germany to achieve its standard of excellence.
Time and
again, His Highness the Aga Khan has underlined the importance
of three concepts he sees as essential to creating, stabilising
and strengthening democracies around the world - meritocracy,
pluralism, and civil society. These are all values the
network of Academies strives to instill in its students
- values they will embody and carry with them throughout
their lives.
Every aspect of the school’s environment
and curriculum will influence these values. Students
will benefit from the experience of a pluralistic
learning community, enabling them to embrace diversity
and become true citizens of the world, generous and
tolerant towards other cultures and traditions. The
Academies will engrain the qualities of meritocracy
and develop ethical leaders who will go on to build
and lead the institutions of civil society in their
countries and across the world.