Aga Khan launches academy

Bukenya talks to the Aga Khan after laying the foundation stone for Aga Khan Academy

The Aga Khan Development Network is to set up an international academy worth $50m (about sh87b) in Munyonyo, a Kampala surburb.

His Highness the Aga Khan and Vice-President Prof. Gilbert Bukenya yesterday laid a foundation stone at the 44-acre plot overlooking Lake Victoria. The land was donated by business tycoon Amirali Karmali popularly known as Mzee Mukwano.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Aga Khan called for the need to ensure life skills in educational institutions, rather than what he described as “indoctrination.”

“Education, in the past, has often been a matter of indoctrination - advancing the demands of dogma instead of the disciplines of reason.

“What is required today, in my view, is an educational approach which is the polar opposite of indoctrination - one that nurtures the spirit of anticipation and agility, adaptability and adventure.

He told guests that in an age of increasing change, the most vital thing a student could learn was how to go on learning.

The academy, the Aga Khan said, was one of the planned 18 Aga Khan academies expected to be set up in 14 countries around the world in the next 15 years.

He said the academies would increase access to education based on an international baccalaureate curriculum. The first academy was inaugurated in Kenya in 2003.

The international curriculum, noted the Aga Khan, would honour world-class standards and respect cultural diversity.

“Its approach is to help students combine a cosmopolitan spirit on the one hand, with a strong sense of cultural identity on the other. And is that not one of the secrets to success and fulfillment in our rapidly globalising world?” he asked.

“Everyone, everywhere, faces the challenge of engaging productively and creatively in the global arena of action and ideas, while also respecting the unique character of family roots and cultural traditions.

“The curriculum will encourage its students to practice intellectual humility; recognising that what they do not know will always be greater than what they know - and launching an ardent, lifelong search for the knowledge they will need,” the Aga Khan said.

The spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims also commended Uganda as a centre of learning and pledged support to the education sector.

“Uganda is the home of great international institutions like Makerere University, a traditional source of indigenous African leadership. Today, the Government is making a commendable steps to universal education.

Referring to the hydroelectric energy project at Bujagali, the Aga Khan said this was another key step in building Uganda’s future.

“I noted, there, that lasting economic growth will be self-destructive if it is not matched by the growth of the power supply.

“The same thing is true in the world of human resources, where people supply the power. If economic growth propels us down a road for which our future leaders are not prepared, then we will never sustain our advances.”

In a speech read by Bukenya, President Yoweri Museveni thanked the Aga Khan agency for its development initiatives. He said the challenge was to train job creators, not job seekers and called for career guidance in schools.