Recognising the correlation between the quality of teacher education and socio-economic growth in the developing world, the Aga Khan University Institute of Educational Development offers teachers the skills and opportunities they need to excel.
AKDN / Zahur Ramji
Recognising the correlation between the quality of teacher education and socio-economic growth in the …
AKDN / Zahur Ramji
This page is also available inIn Pakistan and East Africa, AKU-trained educators are transforming classroom instruction and school management, replacing traditional methods of rote learning with a student-centred approach that builds problem-solving skills and encourages independent thinking.
Graduates of our Institutes for Educational Development (IED) are model teachers and school administrators. They improve overall school performance by introducing innovative teaching methods and effective leadership practices, inspiring their colleagues and working with parents, communities and government officials. AKU operates two Institutes for Educational Development: in Karachi, Pakistan (founded in 1993), and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (founded in 2007). The latter serves Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.
AKDN / Gary Otte
Pakistan
In Pakistan, the Institute serves as a national resource, and its impact on policy and practice has been significant and widely acknowledged.
An independent, external review of the Institute’s first 15 years found that “IED represents a unique, effective, sustainable and dynamic contribution to education reform for developing countries”. The review’s authors also stated that teaching, research and service “have never, in our experience in the developing world, been so strategically developed and extensive as at IED”. To date, the Institute has awarded more than 1,500 degrees and diplomas. Fifty-two percent of graduates are women.
IED has repeatedly partnered with the federal and provincial governments to improve teaching and learning in public schools and support policy development. A significant number of IED alumni serve at senior levels in government institutions, NGOs and school systems.
IED has:
- conducted large-scale interventions to improve teaching and learning in government schools in underprivileged and remote areas of Sindh and Gilgit- Baltistan with the support of UNESCO, the Aga Khan Foundation and the development agencies of Canada, Australia and Korea;
- helped develop Sindh’s curriculum for children ages three-five and trained 1,600 teachers to deliver it;
- actively engaged in writing Sindh’s non-formal basic education policy;
- worked extensively with the government in Gilgit Baltistan to develop its educational policy; and
- won the competitive bid to review Pakistan’s first-ever single national curriculum and develop its teacher education modules.
AKDN / Gary Otte
East Africa
In a short time, IED in East Africa has established itself as a leader in teacher education in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. To date, it has awarded more than 600 master’s degrees and trained more than 3,000 educators through its certificate programmes, short courses and workshops.
In 2014, the Institute trained more than 800 secondary school head teachers in Uganda under a grant from the World Bank. Alongside other AKDN agencies, it recently completed a five-year project funded by the Canadian government and the Aga Khan Foundation, Strengthening Education Systems in East Africa. The project helped to improve education at the pre-primary and primary levels in marginalised areas of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.