Mumbai, India, 17 September 2024 - Last week, Princess Zahra Aga Khan and her daughter Sara completed a five-day working visit to India, where, accompanied by members of the Aga Khan Schools board, they observed the progress of educational institutions in Telangana, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

In Hyderabad, Telangana, Princess Zahra Aga Khan visited the two campuses of the Diamond Jubilee High School, the Aga Khan Hostel in Kompally and the Aga Khan Academy. While in Gujarat, she visited a pre-school in Keshod, the Malia Hatina Hostel and the Girnar School, and the Aga Khan School in Chitravad. In Mumbai, visits were arranged to the Diamond Jubilee High School for Girls and the coeducational Diamond Jubilee High School.

The breadth and diversity of the educational institutions they visited underscores AKDN’s commitment to ensuring widespread access to high-quality education, in order to help nurture and develop future leaders of India.

AKDN has a long and rich history in India, with strong educational institutions dating back to 1905, when the first Aga Khan school was founded in Mundra. In the 1940s, during the Diamond Jubilee of Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, several more schools were established across South Asia.

The network of schools has continued to grow under the guidance of His Highness the Aga Khan. Today, in India, AKDN operates eight state and national curriculum schools, 19 pre-schools, one hostel and one Academy. Together they serve more than 8,000 students from different backgrounds.

Princess Zahra Aga Khan expressed her thanks to the many volunteers who made the visit possible, and commended the leaders and staff of the projects they visited. “It’s my honour and my pleasure to be here with all of you,” she said. Princess Zahra also spoke about the visit, the progress of AKDN in India and His Highness’s vision.

“I think we all follow the same vision,” she added. “We are all inspired by that vision, we’re all trying to live up to that vision and contribute to it as best we can. And it’s not a question of choice. It’s a question of vocation, and calling, and duty.”