The schools teach students to ask challenging questions, reflect critically, think creatively and engage in problem solving – all essential skills for life in the 21st century. They provide opportunities to excel in the arts, sports and community service in order to create a culture of excellence, achievement and contribution. Academic standards are high, small class sizes are maintained and students are challenged to develop their unique gifts and reach their full potential in all endeavours.

AKES, Uganda operates one internationally pegged nursery programme, which prepares children for both the national and international curriculum pathways. At primary and secondary level, AKES, Uganda offers both the Ugandan National Curriculum (including the Uganda Certificate of Secondary Education) and international curriculum (including the IGCSE and IB Diploma Programme).

The Aga Khan High School is one of only three schools in the country that is accredited to offer the IB programme. Over 400 students have graduated from the programme in the last 15 years.

Schools2030

The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is leading Schools2030, a global 10-year participatory action research and learning improvement programme based in 1,000 government schools across 10 countries, including Uganda. Using the principles of human-centred design and focusing on the key transition years of ages five, 10 and 15, Schools2030 seeks to annually generate 1,000 locally-rooted education solutions that can inform and transform systems-level approaches for improving holistic learning outcomes for all learners. The initiative also includes early childhood development through a pre-primary cohort and interventions to equip young people with employable skills. Find out more

Working with Refugee Hosting Districts

AKF is addressing the complex barriers to girls’ education and inclusive learning in refugee-hosting districts of Uganda through a whole school values-based solution. This includes gender-responsive professional development for teachers, school leadership capacity development, social behavioural change and inclusive processes to design and deliver locally rooted community-driven solutions.

Transforming Student Learning and Teacher Professional Development through ICT

AKF worked in collaboration with the Ugandan government and innovative local companies to use ICT to improve:

• the professional development opportunities available to teachers and education officials;


• student learning materials and resources; and


• systems for monitoring changes in teaching practices and learning outcomes.

By 2021, we had set up solar energy systems in 20 schools, distributed 400 laptops/tablets and projectors, trained 160 teachers, and developed and distributed three ICT modules.

In recognition of the correlation between the quality of teacher education and socio-economic growth in the developing world, AKDN agencies are providing teachers with the skills they need to educate future leaders. We offer an array of training and academic programmes for pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, teacher educators and education managers from both the public and private sectors in Uganda.

Educators can access professional development opportunities through the Aga Khan University’s (AKU’s) Institute of Educational Development, Eastern Africa, a leading centre for teacher training and professional development in the region.

School of Nursing and Midwifery

AKU’s School of Nursing and Midwifery in Kampala aims to strengthen health systems in Uganda by upgrading nursing skills, improving the quality of health care and developing new and more professional nursing courses.

The programme is tailored to ensure health services are responsive to population needs. It uses an innovative curricular approach that enables nurses to obtain professional qualifications while working. To date, more than a thousand nurses have graduated from AKU in Uganda. The School offers an EN-to-RN Diploma Programme, Post-RN Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Post-RM Bachelor of Midwifery.

AKU-educated nurses act as change agents and leaders by providing outstanding care and by helping to improve the quality of care provided by other nurses. The University’s alumni in Uganda lead professional organisations and nursing schools, and serve as hospital head nurses.

Institute for Educational Development

While AKU’s Institute for Educational Development (IED) is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, numerous Ugandan teachers and educators have completed a master’s degree at the Institute and returned to Uganda, and many have received professional development training from IED graduates. IED-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.