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