| The Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) | | | | AKES has increased the number and range |
| provides schooling and other educational | | | | of facilities available to girls. |
| services in over 300 facilities in the | | | | Programme to improve educational quality |
| developing world, ranging from day care | | | | have been built into the AKES system |
| center to higher secondary schools. With | | | | since the early 1980s. Field-based |
| roots in the Ismaili community's | | | | teacher training was launched in the |
| traditions of educational activity, | | | | Northern Areas in 1983. School |
| national service companies in Tanzania, | | | | improvement experiments began at the |
| Kenya, Uganda, India, Pakistan and | | | | same time in Sind province in Pakistan, |
| Bangladesh now manage these schools and | | | | where AKES introduced child-centered |
| centers. | | | | teaching methods, and in Tanzania, where |
| The foundations of the system were laid | | | | new techniques for secondary school |
| by Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah during the | | | | teaching in English, Mathematics and |
| first half of the twentieth century when | | | | Science were implemented in |
| over a hundred schools were established, | | | | Dar-es-Salam. AKES, Kenya has been the |
| mainly for the Ismaili community, in | | | | Network pioneer in the uses of computers |
| East Africa and South Asia. Under the | | | | in the classroom, while many Network |
| leadership of the Present Imam, the | | | | initiatives in pre-school education |
| schools began to broaden their intake of | | | | began in AKES, India. |
| pupils and extend their academic range | | | | Supported by the Aga Khan Foundation, |
| in the 1950s. | | | | some of these experiments have been |
| Today, AKES faces the same constraints | | | | carried out in government schools as |
| as other providers of education in the | | | | well as AKES institutions, so |
| developing world, whether public or | | | | contributing to the improvement of |
| private: population growth outstripping | | | | education in the countries in which AKES |
| resources, educational costs increasing | | | | operates. And with both the national |
| at a faster rate than income, poorly | | | | service companies and the Aga Khan |
| trained teachers, inappropriate | | | | Foundation acting as relays, this body |
| curricula and in some areas, the low | | | | of experience in teacher development and |
| health and education to diminish these | | | | school improvement is having impact |
| obstacles to educational access and | | | | throughout the Network. The Institute |
| achievement. To increase access, AKES | | | | for Educational Development of the Aga |
| has continued to create schools; in | | | | Khan University has been created to |
| close collaboration with the Aga Khan | | | | provide a permanent institutional base |
| Housing Boards and AKF, it has also | | | | that can sustain these and other |
| supported community-based school | | | | initiatives in education. |
| construction. In the north of Pakistan, | | | | |