Aga Khan lays stress on public education Staff Reporter
| Says leaders should be prepared for a demanding future |
YSR lays stone for Aga Khan Academy Promises all help from Government Institution coming up in Raviryal village
SOMETHING TO CHEER ABOUT: Aga Khan with Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy during the foundation laying ceremony of the Aga Khan Academy in Hyderabad on Friday. – photo: Satish H.
HYDERABAD: Public education was still an essential obligation of a just society and its interests would be best served only if future leaders were prepared for an unusually demanding future, said Aga Khan, 49th Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and founder chairman of Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).
He was speaking after Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy laid the foundation for the Aga Khan Academy (AKA), an educational institution coming up on a 100-acre campus in Raviryal village in Maheshwaram mandal of adjoining Ranga Reddy district. This will be the second such academy after Mombasa in Kenya.
Based on the International Baccalaureate (IB) system, the academic programme would prepare students for the widely-respected IB degree and admission to the best of university programs in India and abroad. It would help them join a community of some 1,800 schools globally.
Value of pluralism
However, Aga Khan said the AKAs would have their own areas of emphasis, including an explicit concern for the value of pluralism and focus on ethics of life, of how global economics work and on comparative political systems.
He said the tension and violence in much of the world was not out of fundamental clash of civilisations, specially between the Islamic world and the West, but only due to a clash of ignorance.
Dr. Reddy promised all help from Government to AKA in its endeavour and praised the AKDN for its social work, referring specifically to its post-tsunami intervention. He said in order to increase competitiveness, the Government had introduced Jawahar Knowledge Centres in 60 engineering and 30 degree colleges, apart from the `gurukulams’ started in six districts for advanced training in knowledge areas.
AKA Director Salim Bhatia, outlining milestones of the Academy’s development, said professional development of teachers would begin by late 2008. Classes begin for the academic year 2009-2010. The vision, he said, was to have 10 such campuses across South and Central Asia, East Africa and the Middle East in 10 years.
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