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