Role of Akf in fields of Education

Three agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network are active in the field of education at the pre-school, primary, and secondary levels; the Aga Khan Foundation, the Aga Khan Education Services, and the Aga Khan University.

Aga Khan Foundation

A major goal of the Foundation is to improve the quality of basic education by a programme of grants to governments and NGOs. Four objectives set the wider agenda: ensuring better early caring and learning environments for young children; increasing access to education; keeping children in school longer; and raising levels of academic achievement. In common with other donor agencies, the Foundation intends that girls, the very poor, and geographically remote populations should receive special attention. Of the many factors that influence the quality of basic education, four in particular are the focus of current grants:

• The location, timing, and content of teacher training;

• Professional development for all categories of educators and caregivers;

• The role of governments, NGOs, communities, and parents in financing and managing education; and

• The cultural and economic relevance of the curriculum.

AKF's education portfolio is distinctive in one other respect. It interprets 'basic education' as the continuation of learning which stretches from birth to adolescence. Thus roughly half the education projects it supports and half the financial investment are concentrated on stimulating the development of the young child. In developing countries, the Young Children and the Family portfolio is experimenting in both rural and urban settings with various community-based approaches that enhance early childcare and education opportunities, while work in Europe and the USA focuses on newly immigrant or economically marginalised families. A common concern across most of these projects is the quality of experience received as a child moves from home to early childhood development settings to primary school.

Research in western countries indicates that successful educational change is achieved by treating the individual school as a unit, and ensuring that the school principal is a key player who mentors teachers repeatedly as they deploy new skills in their classrooms. Foundation projects are testing how far this formula holds true in contexts where many teachers have no more than primary-level education themselves, and where the extreme shortage of funds dictates that materials and training have to be concentrated in Resource Centres to which individual schools and teachers have access.

The increasing inability of governments to fund even the primary cycle of schooling from tax revenue is producing an ad hoc set of 'cost-sharing' arrangements. The Foundation is attempting to turn this unsatisfactory situation to advantage by experimenting with mechanisms, such as mini-endowments, which allow parents and communities a wider role in managing and co-financing their children's education within specific cultural, social, and economic contexts. The rapid growth of the private education sector in Africa and Asia, as well as in the former Soviet Union and western countries, calls for projects, which reassess and redefine the respective roles and responsibilities of government and other stakeholders.

Aga Khan Education Services

AKES currently operates more than 280 schools and advanced educational programmes that provide quality pre-school, primary, secondary, and higher secondary education services to more than 54,000 students in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Tajikistan. AKES is also developing new schools in Kyrgyzstan and Madagascar and studying the feasibility of services and facilities in Mozambique.

Programmes to improve educational quality have been built into the AKES system since the early-1980s. Field-based teacher training was launched in Pakistan's Northern Areas in 1983. School improvement experiments began at the same time in Sind province in Pakistan, where AKES introduced child-centred teaching methods, and in Tanzania, where new techniques for secondary school teaching in English, mathematics, and science were implemented in Dar es Salaam. AKES, Kenya has been the Development Network pioneer in the use of computers in the classroom, while many Network initiatives in pre-school education began in AKES, India.

Supported by the Aga Khan Foundation, some of these experiments have been carried out in government schools as well as AKES institutions, thereby contributing to the improvement of education in the countries in which AKES operates. With both the national service companies and the Aga Khan Foundation acting as relays, this body of experience in teacher development and school improvement is having an impact throughout the Network. The Institute for Educational Development of the Aga Khan University has been created to provide a permanent institutional base that can sustain these and other initiatives in education.

AKES is committed to achieving excellence by continuous improvement of its programmes, services, and processes. Offering a superior education to students is perhaps the most important factor in creating a successful future for generations that will have to cope with a rapidly changing environment. Considering the system as a whole, the leading characteristics of the work of the Aga Khan Education Services are:

• the continuing pursuit of excellence in educational practice and management in diverse and challenging settings;

• child-centred teaching methods;

• a special emphasis on female education; and

• school-based teacher training.

Currently, the major initiatives throughout the system include:

• the introduction of computers and distance learning to supplement teaching and improve learning methods;

• the improvement of physical infrastructure, particularly of community-based schools;

• advanced teacher training through the Institute for Educational Development at the Aga Khan University;

• an East African education initiative to facilitate coordination of programmes, identification of best practices, and quality educational initiatives, advancement of policy dialogue on privatisation of schools, improvement in teacher training and retention and acceleration of computer-assisted educational methods;

• development of English language and economics programmes at selected universities in Central Asia; and

• collaboration with a leading private school in the USA - Phillips Academy, Andover - to improve programmes in science, mathematics, economics, English language, and technology.

Aga Khan University

The Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) focuses on school improvement through professional development of teachers and managers of schools and school systems. Principal programmes are the two-year Master of Education degree, the two-month Visiting Teacher Programme, and field-based Advanced Diplomas in School Management and Subject Specialisation. Course participants come from South and Central Asia, and from East Africa. AKU-IED works in partnership with both government and private educational sectors.

Programmes have been developed and delivered in collaboration with Oxford University and the University of Toronto. In addition to Partner Universities, AKU-IED has links with Sheffield Hallam University (UK), Phillips Academy (USA) through the International Academic Partnership (IAP), Oslo College (Norway), and AKDN institutions. The AKU-IED's partnerships extend to government and non-government agencies and through its network of co-operating schools. The Institute is funded primarily by the European Union, the Canadian International Development Agency, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Aga Khan Foundation.

AKU-IED undertakes classroom based and policy related research focusing particularly on the thematic areas of access and equity, supporting curriculum and school improvement, monitoring and documenting the effectiveness of programmes, and undertaking research which informs and influences educational policy.

AKU-IED's first purpose built campus, designated a Professional Development Centre, is located within the Sultan Mahomed Shah School campus in Karachi. Reflecting its commitment to local capacity building and the development of programmes which meet regional needs, a second Professional Development Centre is presently being constructed in Gilgit in the Northern Areas of Pakistan with a satellite campus in Chitral. Similar Centres are envisaged for East Africa and Central Asia.

AKU-IED's second Professional Development Centre (PDC) in Northern Pakistan commenced operations in early 1999 in Gilgit, with funding support from the European Commission. This PDC is a collaborative venture of The Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan and AKU-IED. The establishment of the new PDC in Northern Pakistan will respond to the urgent and ongoing need for competent, effective teachers, especially female teachers, at primary and secondary school levels - in both the government and private sectors. It will create indigenous human resources and an institutional structure capable of supporting effective schools and educational systems in the North. The core function of the PDC would be professional development of teachers who are already in service. Key supporting functions will include management training for school heads and middle and senior educational managers, curriculum development, and research. A satellite PDC will be developed in Chitral. Planning is underway to establish PDCs in East Africa and Central Asia.

The Advanced Diploma in Primary Education and the Advanced Diploma in Social Studies are one-year field-based programmes and extensions of the Visiting Teacher Programmes (VTP) in the areas of Primary Education and Social Studies. They are designed to enhance the pedagogical content knowledge of the participants and to make them specialists in their subject areas, leading to their further professional and academic development. Graduates, in concert with Professional Development Teachers and head teachers, improve the quality of education in their home schools. ADIPE started in July 1999. ADISS is to start in the year 2000.

School-Based Visiting Teacher Programme (SBVTP) and VTPs are variants on full time programmes. The SBVTP is being tested in Karachi in the area of English teaching. This alternative entails a mix of on-campus work and school-based practice and supervision. A similar programme had initially been successfully implemented in Nairobi. VTPs will be offered in Bangladesh in late 1999 while programmes based in Central Asia are planned for the future.

A view of Akes  SBTVP Program at Hunza.